The Desenrola program should clear the names of up to 2.5 million Brazilian citizens enrolled by the end of last year on lists of defaulters due to debts of up to US$20. The number should be reached since the bank Nubank decided on Wednesday, July 19, to join the initiative and, therefore, will have to "de-negative" customers whose names were sent to lists of defaulters because of small debts.
Nubank is among the banks that most negativeted the name of Brazilians due to debts that, along with fines and interest, amounted to up to US$20 in December 2022. According to the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (Workers' Party), among the 2.5 million protested by banks for small debts, 1 million were Nubank customers – 40% of the total.
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For the economist and coordinator of the Financial Services Program at the Brazilian Institute of Consumer Defense (Idec), Ione Amorim, the percentage is “scandalous”. Even more so when considering what Nubank represents to the national financial market.
Nubank has 73 million customers, according to data from the Brazilian Central Bank (BC). This means that the bank protested one out of every 73 account holders because of small debts.
The other banks that joined the Desenrola Program – Caixa, Banco do Brasil, Itaú, Santander, Bradesco and others – together have at least 510 million customers, of which 1.5 million had their names sent to defaulters lists for debts of up to US$20. This means that one in every 340 customers was added to bad debt lists due to small debts.
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It is important to remember that a citizen can have an account at more than one bank. Therefore, the number of customers of financial institutions exceeds the number of inhabitants of the country.
According to Amorim, considering the credit portfolio of Brazilian banks, the numbers of small debtors at Nubank are more discrepant. The latest BC data indicate that Nubank has US$7.63 billion in loans to individuals. That is, there is a small negative debtor for every US$7,630 in credit provided.
The credit portfolio of the other banks that joined the Desenrola Program exceeds US$524 billion. In their case, for every US$335,000 loaned to individuals, there is one customer on the list of debtors due to debts of up to US$20.
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“I am outraged by this. The negatives made jobs, property rentals, a series of situations in which it is necessary to have a clean name unfeasible”, said Ione. “It is very scandalous to see these issues being treated so lightly.”
According to Ione, considering the amount of the debt, negative customers were punished possibly because they forgot to pay a residual balance on a credit card or even a small fine for late payment of a loan installment. She stated that, most likely, if the bank had alerted these customers correctly, they would have paid the debts.
"Cool" bank
Founded in 2013, Nubank is now the largest digital bank – without physical branches – in Brazil. It grew by presenting itself as a friendlier bank and offering accounts and credit cards free of maintenance fees.
Economist Miguel de Oliveira, executive director of the National Association of Finance, Administration and Accounting Executives (Anefac), recalls that credit cards were offered to citizens whose credit history was seen as bad by other banks. Some of these people actually got into trouble with the services and limits offered by Nubank. They became debtors.
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“Nubank ran an extremely aggressive campaign to attract customers. the Bank gave a “roxinho” [nickname for the institution's credit card] to everyone,” he said. “Now, there are a huge number of account holders in this situation [debtors].”
“Nubank was committed to this social issue, financial orientation, etc. This amount of people owing impacts on this image”, added Oliveira.
Ione agrees with Oliveira's view. According to her, Nubank emerged as an alternative to the large financial system, seen as a "predator" of Brazilian income. It ended up pushing small debtors into the hands of finance companies that offer credit to debtors charging exorbitant interest rates of up to 20% per month.
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Contacted by Brasil de Fato on Wednesday, Nubank, through its press office, asked for information on the investigation of our report about the bank's debtors and asked if it could comment after the publication of this article.
After receiving such information, the bank no longer responded to BdF's contacts or provided any requested data.
Edited by: Leandro Melito
