Itaú Unibanco says it is frivolous to attribute responsibility to banks in the Americanas case

Itaú Unibanco classified this Tuesday (24) as “frivolous” the attempt to attribute to the banks responsibility for the irregular accounting practices of Americanas, in response to the note from the retailer’s reference shareholders.

On Sunday, in the first public demonstration about the accounting problems involving the retailer, which culminated in the request for judicial recovery, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira stated that they were never aware of any accounting maneuvers.

They also stated that they had one of the largest and most reputable auditing firms, PwC, which made regular use of circularization letters, used to confirm Americanas’ accounting information with external sources, including the banks that operated with the company.

“Neither these financial institutions nor PwC have ever reported any wrongdoing,” the retailers’ reference shareholders wrote.

The trio does not talk about the possibility of putting money to capitalize the company, something that creditor banks have been pressuring them to do.

Americanas filed for bankruptcy last Thursday (19), citing debts of BRL 43 billion reais, in one of the largest requests of its kind in the country.

In this Tuesday’s statement, Itaú stated that the preparation and approval of financial statements that reflect the company’s reality are the sole and exclusive responsibility of the company’s management, “and without any influence from banks or other creditors”.

The bank also claims that circularization letters are an instrument that support the audit in verifying the information provided by management, and were answered in accordance with best market practices. And he added that the balances of operations were also always reported in the Central Bank’s central risk system.

“Thus, the attempt to attribute to the banks any responsibility for the company’s irregular accounting practices is frivolous”, stated the country’s largest bank.