Financial Inclusion White Paper - NCR

Case Study 5S2: Caixa Economica Federal, Brazil
Delivering financial services through the BC model, assisted by
technology
The Government of Brazil has urged state banks to better serve poor people and
rural areas and has relaxed account opening conditions and the rules governing
the use of BCs for better delivery of financial services.
In Brazil, banks need to place 45 percent of sight deposits in reserve at the
central bank at 0 percent rate of interest. To encourage micro finance, central
bank permits banks to take 2 percent of the allocated 45 percent deposit and
deliver micro loans at between 24 and 48 percent interest rate.
Caixa, established in the 19 th century to collect national savings from the poor, is
today Brazil’s second largest bank. It reaches poor communities and villages
using business correspondents who may deliver doorstep banking or use shared
access sites such as retail stores, lottery outlets and drug stores. Caixa has
14,000 agents and handles all equipment, training and contracting through
internal resources. Other banks, such as Banco Popular and Lemon Bank use third
parties for these tasks.
The Caixa agent is assisted with technology such as a Point of Service device,
access to the mobile communication network, a barcode scanner to scan the bill,
and a type of teller machine with a screen (Computer) in the store.
The shared access retail outlet provides assistance to an agent to handle the
transactions for client. Clients use bank smartcards that may have debit facilities.
Under this model, Caixa delivers savings (withdrawal and deposit), credit,
remittance, government benefits, pensions receipts, bill payment and topping up
mobile phone air time.
Caixa has 32 million accounts and half of its customer base earns less than $80
per month, which is itself double the minimum wage in Brazil.
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