CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL AS A GOVERNANCE MECHANISM IN THE BRAZILIAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

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Abstract

In this paper we analyse how ownership and control work in the main banks operating in Brazil. Our purpose is to identify the mechanisms through which investors try to secure the control of the corporations and the return of the capital invested. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon governance model, where the usual practice is to distribute the share capital among a large number of shareholders, or still, the Japanese or German models, with a massive participation of the banks in the control of the companies, recent research in the Brazilian companies listed in the stock exchange indicate a great volume of voting shares in the hands of a few shareholders. In the present study we seek to reveal whether this corporate governance mechanism also prevails in the Brazilian banking sector. The analysis comprised fifty of the biggest banks operating in Brazil, accounting for over 90% of the total assets of the Brazilian financial system. This study, besides revealing the levels of concentration of control and ownership of the leading Brazilian financial institutions, elucidates the corporate governance models featuring in the literature. It also explains how, in the management of the financial organizations, the investor, when making use of the mechanisms that secure their rights to ownership, guarantees the control and legal protection of his/her investment. The results of the research point to high levels of ownership concentration in the financial institutions in Brazil.

Keywords: Corporate Ownership, Control, Financial System, Brazil

How to cite this paper: Gonçalves, C. A., Pardini, D. J., & de Moraes Meirelles, A. (2005). Concentration of ownership and control as a governance mechanism in the Brazilian financial system. Corporate Ownership & Control, 3(1-1), 135-143. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv3i1c1p2