"Brazil bank’s past slavery ties to be investigated in unprecedented inquiry", 29 September 2023

...Brazilian prosecutors have launched a civil investigation into one of the country’s largest banks’ historical links to slavery, in an unprecedented move to hold Brazilian institutions to account for their role in the enslavement of millions of Africans.

Banco do Brasil was notified this week of the public inquiry seeking reparations for the bank’s connections with the transatlantic trafficking of Black people.

Prosecutors decided to act after a group of historians brought their attention to the bank’s dark history and stressed the importance of publicly acknowledging institutions’ past ties with slavery and discussing reparations.

Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery and has struggled to come to terms with this legacy, long concealing institutionalised racism behind the myth that it was a racial democracy...

Banco do Brasil – today Brazil’s second-largest public bank – was first established in 1808. Historians say the financial institution was founded with capital derived from slavery-based economic activities and funded public efforts to keep the slave trade alive and prevent abolition. Research has identified various individuals, known to own or trade enslaved people, who occupied important positions at the bank throughout the 19th century...

Prosecutors are requesting that Banco do Brasil share facts about its historical and financial links with slave traffickers and slavery, as well as volunteer information on possible reparations such as the funding of research projects...