Everything you need to know about the Banco Master case

Twelve years after Operation Car Wash — the sweeping anti-corruption investigation that revealed how graft had become embedded in Brazilian politics and the business models of the corporate elite — Brasília is once again holding its breath for bombastic revelations.

This time, the alleged wrongdoing does not center on a major construction firm, as it did in the Car Wash affair, but on a financial institution accused of fraud and ties to organized crime. Banco Master’s close relationships with political power brokers, high-court justices and financial regulators have raised the stakes considerably, especially in an election year.

Here is what you need to know about the Banco Master scandal.

In the years before it became a political headache in Brasília and a stress test for Brazil’s financial watchdogs, Banco Master was, on paper, a story of reinvention.

The institution traces its roots to the 1970s, when it was founded as Banco Máxima. After coming close to bankruptcy in 2016, it underwent corporate and operational restructuring between 2018 and 2021. By the end of that process, under the leadership of businessman Daniel Vorcaro, it had adopted a new name: Banco Master.

What followed was a pursuit of growth that, in hindsight, looks a lot more like a high-wire act.