Abstract

MINELLA, Ary Cesar. Brazil's largest private banks: an economic and sociopolitical profile.Translated byMarcelo Otto Severo. Sociologias [online]. 2007, vol.3Selected edition, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1517-4522.

This study examines elements of the power of financial institutions, emphasizing control over capital flow - characterized as financial hegemony - the constitution of economic or financial groups, the structure of representation of the segment's class interests, and its participation in the political process and in State decision-making mechanisms. Considering the economic restructuring undergone by Brazil in the 1990s, the work draws a profile of the ten largest private banks based on selected economic and sociopolitical indicators. Beyond their stance as mere financial intermediaries, it indicates the degree to which those banks become economic groups and, especially, larger organizational units, which is shown in connections with the State and in the class's actual organization and actions in the corporate and political realms.

Keywords : Financial system; bank concentration; financial groups; financial hegemony; class representation.