‘If any man gets in the way, report it’, says Caixa president

President of Caixa Econômica Federal, Daniella Marques defended the importance of female figures in positions of leadership in the market, and of channels of complaint against any type of harassment.

“Having a female representation is important for girls who are starting to be inspired and know that they can arrive”, said the president of the public bank this Thursday (18), during an event at BTG Pactual. “If any man gets in the way, report it, because the channels are open,” she added.

Daniela took office in early July after her predecessor, Pedro Guimarães, resigned in the wake of a series of allegations of sexual abuse by bank employees.

Caixa’s president said that she took over the bank “in the midst of a reputational crisis that is very much extrapolated by the proximity of the election, which does not need to comment on how polarized it is, and how much narrative and disinformation it has”.

She stated that, as part of the work to improve the governance of the public bank, she created a sustainability vice-presidency to pay more attention to the practices adopted internally and to customer service. The area’s focus is particularly on violence against women and child abuse, female entrepreneurship and an offering of financial products aimed at the bank’s customers, she said.

Caixa “should be a reference in sustainability, being one of the largest social banks in the world”, said Daniella.

She added that vocation and talent are aspects that are not related to gender or sexual preference, but recognized that there are barriers for women to assume leadership positions in Brazilian society.

BNDES president announces new round of emergency credit access program

The president of BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), Gustavo Montezano, said at the event that the bank is preparing, for the coming weeks, a new round of PEAC (Emergency Program for Access to Credit).

The program was launched in mid-2020, with the transfer of credit lines made available by financial institutions to support small and medium-sized companies in the face of the closure of trade caused by the pandemic.

According to Montezano, the program had a total cost estimated at around R$10 billion, and resulted in the release of credits of around R$90 billion in five months.

“Instead of giving BRL 10 billion to large companies, giving BRL 1 billion to small companies is more social development, more economic development, and more votes at the end of the day,” said Montezano.

He said he wants to structure a program that uses part of the value obtained by BNDES from the sale of shares in large companies such as Petrobras, Vale and JBS in the capitalization of small businesses.

The structure, he said, would take place through partnerships between the development bank and investment funds, such as venture capital, specialized in identifying entrepreneurs with high potential, but still at an early stage in the development of their operations.