Meirelles takes on a new project in the private sector, but remains open at the invitation of Lula

Preferred name in the financial market to command the economy in the government of president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), former minister Henrique Meirelles assumed this Monday (31) a new commitment in the private sector.

Lula’s supporter in the dispute against Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the former head of Finance in the Michel Temer government (MDB) and former president of the Central Bank in the Lula government, will coordinate the expansion of ACCrédito, the financial arm of the São Paulo Commercial Association that prepares to become a digital bank.

Meirelles, who also recently joined the global advisory board of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, told Sheet that, although he is working on an agenda with new projects in the private sector, he “would have no major problems” in leaving these activities to integrate the Lula government.

“At the moment, if I am invited and accepted, I will evidently end my work in the private sector, whether at ACCrédito, Binance or other projects that I am involved in, in the same way I did in 2016, when I took over the Ministry of Finance, or in 2003, when I took over the Central Bank”, stated Meirelles.

The former minister also said that he had not received an invitation “for now” from Lula. Asked if he would accept, he repeated that he will wait for an eventual contact to make his decision.

“I don’t make a decision by hypothesis, I never did. Let’s wait. If there’s an invitation, I’ll do an analysis and make the decision,” he said.

If he remains in the private sector, Meirelles may be invited to take over the board of directors of ACCrédito, after the completion of the expansion project that he will coordinate at the institution, according to Milton Luiz de Melo Santos, president and founder of the company.

In addition to his management duties, according to Santos, the former minister will play an important role in the business by lending his prestige to the financial market to attract investors.

“We have been operating for two years and it is natural that we need capital to continue operating our business, which is to offer credit to micro and small companies, which gave rise to the need to seek investors for the business. credibility and respectability is Henrique Meirelles”, commented Santos.

Integrated to more than 400 trade associations in the state of São Paulo, with 300,000 associated companies, ACCrédito has been offering credit lines through its digital platform accreditodigital.com.br since January 2021.

During this period, it assisted more than 1,200 companies in working capital operations, investment financing, discounting bills and prepayment of card receivables. The average individual value of the operations is R$ 40 thousand.