A shift in how Brazil’s state-owned banks will operate

The new presidents of Brazil’s state-owned banks—the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Banco do Brasil, and Caixa—took office on Monday in Brasília. President Jair Bolsonaro and Minister of the Economy Paulo Guedes signaled that the institutions might shift from the strategies adopted by previous administrations. It was not completely clear, however, what their new guidelines would be.

During a press briefing, Mr. Bolsonaro said his goal was to make state-owned banks more transparent, in what was a dig at the opposition, especially the Workers’ Party. On his Twitter profile, the president said that he will “disclose” the “black box of the BNDES.” “Many contracts have been undone and will now be exposed,” he declared. According to the new president, the bank was used as political currency by previous administrations. In his speech at the inauguration of the new bank presidents, Paulo Guedes said that the financial institutions were victims of “fraud, looting, and robberies.”

According to Sérgio...