Amigos da Terra Amazônia Brasileira and BankTrack today release a new guide to the Brazilian banking sector, entitled: "An Introduction to the Brazilian Banking Sector and its Sustainability Practices".

This report is a part of the ‘Building BankTrack in BRICs project', a major project financed by the Adessium Foundation which has aimed to strengthen the capacity of civil society groups based in the ‘BRIC countries' (Brazil, Russia, India and China), to monitor the activities and investments of the banking sector in these countries, and to ensure strong coverage of these countries within the BankTrack network.

In the Brazilian context, this project has included developing greatly improved links with Brazilian civil society organisations, not least the report's authors, Amigos da Terra Amazônia Brasileira, as well as the delivery of a training course for campaigners in Guararema, São Paulo in October 2012.

This report provides a basic introduction to the Brazilian finance sector, describes how it is regulated, its main participants, and the steps taken to date towards sustainability. We hope that making this report widely available will contribute to an improved understanding of the Brazilian banking sector, and that this understanding will equip civil society organisations and other campaigners to pressure Brazilian banks towards acting, with full accountability and transparency, in the best interests of people and planet.

Download the report

The report is also available in Portuguese. Download the report in Portuguese.