controversial former director of Comind Bank

Carlos Eduardo Quartim Barbosa, former administrator of one of the largest private banks in Brazil until the 1980s, Banco do Comércio e Indústria de São Paulo (Comind), died this Wednesday 31, at the age of 98.

Known as Charlô, he played a central role in the conflict over control of Comind’s shares following the death of his father, Teodoro Quartim Barbosa, who had been president and one of the bank’s main shareholders. His burial took place Wednesday afternoon at the Consolação cemetery.

Charlô was also notable as a cattle breeder and one of those responsible for the introduction and consolidation of the Brahman cattle breed in Brazil.

When Teodoro died in 1968, the management of Comind was taken over by a consortium, Stab (Serviços Técnicos de Administração de Bens Ltda.), of which Charlô held approximately 20% of the shares, the largest of the shares. The son, however, had to face competition from other shareholders to manage the bank.

Names such as Paulo Edydio Martins (who would govern São Paulo between 1975 and 1979), Gastão Vidigal (owner of Banco Mercantil), and the Ermírio de Moraes family (owner of Votorantim), among others, were responsible for controlling the remaining shares.

Corporate conflict led Comind to federal intervention and extrajudicial liquidation by the Central Bank (CB) in 1985. Critics blamed Charlô’s mismanagement as the cause of the collapse, while the administrator said the outcome was the result of a personal revenge scheme by his opponents.

The BC then reported that the bank presented “problems in its asset/liability structure”, caused by the granting of “difficult-to-recover loans”, compromising its net worth, in addition to “serious violations of the regulations in force”.

The Comind crisis had caused a loss of 6.8 trillion cruises and led to an emergency meeting of the National Monetary Board on November 19, 1985, to approve the liquidation. At the same meeting, the body also decided to extinguish the Auxiliaires and Maisonnave groups.

“Indicators show that the financial institutions of these groups continue to face insurmountable solvency difficulties in the short term, given the existence of high levels of non-performing credit operations. In addition, serious irregularities have been noted,” the BC said in a note.

The problems in the three groups of companies were structural, “inherent in the underlying framework of insolvency”, said the BC, for which the proposals presented by the administrators to resolve the problems always involved the “substantial participation of public money, under subsidized conditions”.

“This measure constitutes the latest chapter in a process of financial instability between the three groups, which has already lasted for more than three years and which has led the government – ​​the current and the previous one – to inject 3.3 billion Creole dollars into these institutions, as a rescue plan,” the newspaper published. Stadium at the time.

In a statement to the 3rd Federal Court of São Paulo a few years later, Charlô expressed his dissatisfaction with the liquidation of the bank.

The first major controversy regarding the shareholder conflict arose in November 1977, when Gastão Vidigal, president of Banco Mercantil, wanted to buy 14% of the shares of Comind, owned by José da Silva Gordo and Edgar Queiros Ferreira. The purchase of 39.3 million shares, at a unit price of $4.04 Cr, while the market price was $1.00 Cr, was suspended at the last minute by the Board of Directors of the Stock Exchange, following a request from the BC.

At the end of 1980, Comind, then chaired by Charlô, was sued by the Votorantim Group, holder of 7% of the bank’s voting capital and 23% of Stab, for “abusive attitude, with undisguised ulterior motives and which culminates in a series of irregular acts committed by this administration”. The conflict continued until the collapse of the institution.