162 years of Caixa and its centrality to democracy.

Caixa turns 162 years old, and the main reflection to be made at this moment of so much hope, but also tumultuous due to the recent coup attempt, is the centrality of this public bank to the democracy that we intend to rebuild and strengthen. If it is true that there is no democracy without rights, it must be said that Caixa is a fundamental financial instrument of the Brazilian State for reducing social inequalities, facilitating access for a large part of the population to social policies, banking, and credit, and as such, it should be valued by society as a whole.

After four years of neoliberal policies by Bolsonaro and Guedes, which attempted to weaken the bank and hand it over piecemeal to the market, Caixa needs to be included in the economic debate of the Lula government, especially regarding its capital. Caixa, along with other federal public banks, was capitalized by the Union between 2008 and 2015 through Hybrid Capital and Debt Instruments (IHCDs). Since 2017, the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) has contested the regularity of the operations and, during the previous government, advocated for the return of the funds to the Union.

Over the past four years, Caixa Econômica Federal (a Brazilian state-owned bank) has been forced to return no less than R$ 11 billion to the Federal Government and is, to this day, obligated to follow a repayment schedule from 2023 to 2026. If these repayments are carried out, Caixa will lack the financial capacity to be called upon by the government to fulfill its role as a public bank. In this scenario, fundamental policies for expanding basic rights, such as addressing the housing deficit with the Minha Casa Minha Vida (My House, My Life) program, as well as financing for sanitation and infrastructure projects, will be rendered unfeasible. This, consequently, undermines the powerful production chains that are activated when credit is available for the construction sector, generating employment and income. The creation of new and necessary financing lines, such as for small farmers, will also be compromised. Caixa's involvement in this segment would be a powerful instrument in the urgent actions to combat hunger in the country.

In a March 2021 document, when classifying IHCDs (Investments in Credit Rights) as irregular operations between the Union and federal public banks, the TCU (Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts) constructed a veritable neoliberal allegory. The document states that the “normal” procedure for increasing the capital of a public bank “would be the issuance of securities in a competitive market, followed by the raising of funds and the respective delivery of these funds to financial institutions.” Now, if this were the “normal” procedure, there would be no more public banks. At least not a bank like Caixa Econômica Federal, whose control is exclusively held by the Union, without private shareholders, which makes it a unique and extremely important bank for the country.

The same TCU (Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts) that, in 2015, based the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff on the "fiscal maneuvers" thesis, now bases the return of the IHCD (Investment Funds in Capital Gains Tax) on the thesis of violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF). Recently, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) closed the civil inquiry into the "fiscal maneuvers," highlighting that the TCU itself ruled out the possibility of holding the former president, her former Minister of Finance, and the former Secretary of the Treasury accountable.

It is up to the new government, the same one that won in Congress by approving the Transition Amendment to guarantee space in the budget for social policies, previously hampered by the Fiscal Responsibility Law, to put its strength into defending Caixa Econômica Federal and other federal public banks, confronting the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) in its pro-market bias. Caixa Econômica Federal is central to true democracy, to a country where everyone can eat, work, live, study, and live with dignity. The battle against downsizing Caixa Econômica Federal has begun and will be the main theme throughout its 162 years. We will win! The Brazilian people will win!