BNDES initiates loans over the Internet

Brazilian state development bank BNDES has set up an Internet-based financing unit and plans to distribute loans electronically, worth 300mn reais (US$107mn) this year, Brazilian news agency Agencia Estado reported. BNDES has partnered with Brazil's largest private and public banks to design a credit card to be used for online loan reception. "It's an operation that will be done over the BNDES portal, without bureaucracy, and at a lower cost," the bank's president Carlos Lessa said. Initially the bank will only finance small equipment purchases, of up to 50,000 reais each, though it aims to raise this limit in the medium-term.