Brazilian Crisis Does What Three Coups and a Default Couldn't
- Second-oldest brokerage joins wave of closures as losses mount
- Exchange promised 4.5 million new investors, lured just 6,000
The Bovespa Stock Exchange headquarters in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Aug. 24, 2015.
Photographer: Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Corretora Souza Barros Cambio e Titulos SA survived three coups, a sovereign default and hyperinflation that doubled prices every other month. But Brazil’s second-oldest brokerage couldn’t withstand today’s crisis.
After almost nine decades, only a few of the once 150-strong workforce remain at the company’s mid-century offices in downtown Sao Paulo to tie up loose ends before closing its doors for good. In the end, the straw that broke Souza Barros’ back and brokerages like it wasn’t so dramatic as a military coup. Competition and a market that never quite lived up to its potential was enough to do the job.