Rabobank Group

The Sicredi System comprises 128 credit cooperatives that operate a retail network in rural areas across 10 Brazilian states. A three-tier cooperative with a strong agricultural focus, Sicredi is also Brazil’s seventh-largest financial institution in terms of customer service points.

Seizing retail banking opportunities in Brazil

Although a relatively small retail player in Brazil’s banking industry, Sicredi is strategically located in the south and centre of the country, and holds significant market share in the main agricultural areas of Brazil.

In 2010, Rabo Development took a 30 percent strategic minority stake in Banco Cooperativo Sicredi S.A., the central organisation of the cooperatives. It is a perfect match: like Rabobank, Sicredi focuses on rural areas and agriculture and is unswervingly committed to its cooperative status.

With our investment, we want to help Sicredi maximise value to its credit cooperatives and their members. The partnership gives Sicredi access to Rabobank’s technical assistance and management services. This will help it strengthen its cooperative structure and business operations after having grown in size and profitability in recent years.

Since investing in Sicredi, Rabobank has performed an operating review of the company – evaluating its process and operations, and identifying strengths and improvement areas. We then held a joint growth strategy workshop to examine how Sicredi could further develop into a fully-fledged retail bank, while maintaining its rural orientation and strengthening its corporate governance, operating efficiency, client segmentation and its services to non-member clients in lower income brackets.

Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America. We believe it offers plentiful growth opportunities in rural and retail banking. Rabo Development will assist Sicredi in benefiting from these promising prospects.