Caixa suspends payroll of the Brazil Aid

The president of Caixa Econômica Federal, Rita Serrano, said, this Thursday (12), that she suspended the payroll loan of Auxílio Brasil and that the bank cannot afford the probable losses resulting from default with this type of credit released during the electoral period by Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

“The bank can’t afford it,” said Serrano. “We decided to suspend this modality for two reasons. The first is that the government is reviewing the registration. [manter]. The second is that interest rates are too high for this portion of the population.”

Serrano was sworn in this Thursday, at the Caixa Cultural headquarters in Brasília, in an event attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), the First Lady, Janja, and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad.

In an interview with journalists, she declared that Caixa and Banco do Brasil should be the engine of the new debt renegotiation program, a promise made by President Lula during the campaign.

According to Serrano, the conditions of the program are being defined by the economic team and the presidents of the public banks. “It should be released in February,” he said.

The finance minister, however, declared that the program should be finalized soon after his return from his trip to Switzerland, where he is participating in the World Economic Forum, next week.

Serrano also stated that he intends to renegotiate with the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) a longer period for the return of R$ 20 billion in resources transferred by the Treasury for investments.

“The TCU determined the return in five years. The council approved it and I voted for this payment to be made in seven or eight years”, he said.

“In the next few days I’m going to TCU to try a longer term, eight years. It’s too much for the bank to return R$ 5 billion, on average, per year.”