Business · Economy · 5 hrs ago
Credit cards and overdrafts charge Brazil’s highest interest rates
Brazil’s central bank kept its Selic benchmark rate at 13.75% a year.
In a ranking of borrowing costs, columnist Pedro Fernando Nery placed credit cards and overdrafts at the top.
The Selic is a key interest rate, but a change in it does not necessarily lead to the same change in what people pay on loans.
One reason is the bank spread, the difference between what banks pay to obtain funds and what they charge borrowers.
The government could focus on measures to reduce that spread, Nery said.
Interest rates on government bonds also depend on investors’ view of the government’s ability to repay, so they may not move in line with the Selic.
Credit cards and overdrafts charge the highest interest rates among Brazil’s credit types, according to a ranking by Estadão columnist Pedro Fernando Nery.
The ranking was published in a week when Brazil’s Monetary Policy Committee kept the Selic rate at 13.75% a year.
A lower Selic rate does not necessarily lead to lower interest rates on loans in the market.
Nery said targeted measures to reduce the bank spread may be more effective.
The bank spread is the difference between a bank’s funding cost and what it charges borrowers.
- Who
- Estadão columnist Pedro Fernando Nery produced the ranking.
- What
- The ranking identified credit cards and overdrafts as the credit types with Brazil’s highest interest rates.
- When
- In the week the Monetary Policy Committee kept the Selic rate at 13.75% a year. The article was published on November 5, 2026.
- Where
- Brazil.
- Why
- The article says loan rates do not necessarily follow the Selic rate; it does not state why credit cards and overdrafts have the highest rates.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The Monetary Policy Committee kept the Selic rate at 13.75% a year.
Pedro Fernando Nery made a ranking of credit types by the interest rates they charge.
- Highest rates
- Credit cards and overdrafts
- Selic rate
- 13.75% a year
- Ranking author
- Pedro Fernando Nery
- Bank spread
- The difference between a bank’s funding cost and what it charges borrowers
1 source
What people are saying
The topic of interest rates is at the center of public debate, and it can be difficult to understand why the figures being discussed are so different from the interest you pay on your debts.
Perhaps it would be more effective for the government to continue adopting targeted measures to reduce the bank spread.