Batista Collapse Has Prosecutors at BNDES’s Door: Brazil Credit

The implosion of Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista’s empire is increasing pressure on the nation’s state development bank to disclose the loans it made to his companies.

While BNDES, as the government-owned lender is known, has said it made loans totaling 10.4 billion reais ($4.7 billion) to Batista’s companies in response to a request by Bloomberg under Brazil’s freedom of information law, it has declined to say how much is outstanding. BNDES has rejected requests by prosecutors and lawmakers to reveal how much debt it is owed by the companies, prompting a proposal by Congressman Cesar Colnago to exclude BNDES financing and equity operations from protection by bank secrecy laws.