Banco da Lavoura de Minas Gerais

Banco da Lavoura de Minas Gerais was a Brazilian bank, founded in 1925. On March 1, 1971 the bank moved its head office from Belo Horizonte to São Paulo and assumed its current name Banco Real S.A.

Clemente de Faria founded Banco da Lavoura de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, on 16 June 1925. At that time, Brazil was going through a period of economic readjustment that held back economic development and particularly, industrial production, which had been expanding strongly since 1922. It was in the middle of this scenario of economic uncertainty that the lawyer Clemente de Faria - then 34 years old and quite popular as a result of a one-term mandate as state congressman - started a co-operative. The co-operative's objective was to offer credit to farmers in Minas Gerais, thus allowing them access to financial resources that would, in turn, give them the opportunity to develop their activities.

Business at the co-operative grew quickly, despite the general economic uncertainty. In only two years, it transformed itself into a financial institution - the Banco da Lavoura de Minas Gerais (Farmer's Bank of MG) - all the while remaining faithful to its initial goal: providing small farmers with access to farm loans and opportunities to invest their money.

Working with this constituency and adopting innovative solutions for the banking market of its time, "Lavoura", as it was called in Minas Gerais, began to distinguish itself. It attracted the attention of other bankers, who, laughingly, called the bank, "Clemente's little bank", thus was the reputation of its success in the market. However, this sense of humour did not keep them from adopting solutions and products pioneered by "Banco de Lavoura" for their own institutions, such as: personal credit, the economic account (very similar to today's savings account) and the idea of a "piggy bank".

The process of continuous growth at Banco da Lavoura led to its transformation into a limited liability corporation in 1928. Already in the following year, resting on solid foundations, Banco da Lavoura was able to survive the difficulties engendered by the international financial crisis (the crash of '29), which in turn brought economic instability to Brazil and culminated in the revolution of 1930. Despite all that, Banco da Lavoura continued its expansion, opening its first branch in the city of Queluz, later renamed Conselheiro Lafayette.

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