The president of Banco do Brasil, Tarciana Medeiros, stated this Thursday (12) that some of the medium and large rural producers in default refused to pay debts, renegotiate operations and present new guarantees to the institution, even after the offer of renegotiation programs with easier conditions.
The statement was made during a conference call on the results of the third quarter of 2026. According to the executive, the behavior of part of the debtors surprised the bank's management and has contributed to the worsening of defaults in the agribusiness portfolio.
“We did not count on the persistence and intentionality of moral hazard,” said Tarciana.
BB's Vice President of Agribusiness, Gilson Bittencourt, also pointed out that some producers may be postponing the renegotiation of debts in the hope of obtaining more favorable conditions at another time.
According to the bank's management, cases of default are mainly concentrated among medium and large producers in the Center-West, who work in soybean, corn and livestock farming.
Moral hazard
Tarciana highlighted that, even in the face of record harvests in 2025 and 2026, some producers chose not to honor their financial commitments or seek alternatives to regularize operations.
“Even with record harvests, some large and medium-sized producers chose not to pay or renegotiate, and refused to provide guarantees,” he declared.
The so-called moral risk occurs when a debtor postpones fulfilling his obligations because he believes he will be able to obtain more advantageous negotiation conditions or some type of future benefit.
The president made a point of differentiating between customers who approached the bank to renegotiate their debts and those who remained in default without offering regularization alternatives.
“For those who do not negotiate and do not pay, the instrument is collection”, he stated.
According to Tarciana, around 90% of agribusiness customers continue to pay for their operations on time. The executive highlighted that the deterioration of the portfolio does not represent the behavior of the entire sector and that the bank intends to maintain its relationship with producers who honor their commitments.
Default advances
The worsening of the agribusiness portfolio had a direct impact on Banco do Brasil's balance sheet. In the third quarter of 2026, the institution recorded adjusted net profit of R$1.27 billion, a drop of 66.5% compared to the same period last year.
The cost of credit reached R$21.2 billion in the quarter and totaled R$58.6 billion in the first nine months of the year, growth of 33.2% in the annual comparison.
The agro portfolio indicators also demonstrate the deterioration in the payment capacity of some customers:
• 6.92%: default rate over 90 days in September 2026, compared to 4.84% in the same month of 2025;
• 10.10%: percentage of operations with delays of more than 30 days in September;
• 66%: punctuality index in October, which measures payment of installments on the scheduled date;
• R$21.2 billion: cost of credit recorded in the third quarter.
With the result below expectations, BB revised its adjusted net profit projection for 2026. The estimate, which was previously between R$18 billion and R$22 billion, increased to a range of R$9 billion to R$11 billion.
Renegotiation below
The president stated that the bank identified atypical signs of deterioration in agribusiness payments in the first quarter of 2025. At that time, the institution decided to suspend the disclosure of its financial projections given the uncertainties about the behavior of the portfolio.
Tarciana said that BB intensified its collection strategies, expanded guarantee requirements and reinforced initiatives to renegotiate debts.
Through Provisional Measure (MP) 1,376/2026, R$13.4 billion in agribusiness debts were renegotiated. Despite the financial volume, participation was below the institution's expectations.
According to BB, only 15% of defaulting customers adhered to the renegotiation conditions.
Among the measures adopted by the bank to reduce risk exposure are:
• Reinforcement of credit collection and recovery mechanisms;
• Expansion of guarantee requirements in new operations;
• Intensification of judicialization against debtors;
• Assignment of portfolios with losses to companies specialized in debt recovery;
• Use of artificial intelligence to improve the assessment of producers' payment capacity.
Tarciana also reported that 80% of the 2026/2027 harvest already has fiduciary liens as collateral, a mechanism that allows the creditor to have ownership of the asset linked to the operation until the debt is paid off.
Capital and prospects
In addition to the pressure caused by default, Banco do Brasil faces challenges related to rebuilding its capital and recovering profitability.
Tarciana admitted that the institution's main capital ratio ended the third quarter a little below 11%. Although it is above the regulatory minimum, the indicator remains below the level considered adequate by management.
"Today, our focus is to recover Banco do Brasil's profitability. Our management is committed: to put the bank's sustainability first, even when this requires difficult decisions in the short term", he stated.
For 2027, the bank is preparing a set of more than 15 measures to reinforce its capital structure. Among the initiatives is the reduction in the percentage of dividend distribution, announced on Wednesday (11), which will allow us to retain a greater portion of the results.
The institution's vice-president of Financial Management and Investor Relations, Marco Geovanne Tobias da Silva, stated that the expectation is for defaults to be accommodated and results to gradually recover. The executive also signaled a greater reduction in the volume of credit destined for agribusiness, a segment that currently accounts for part of the institution's difficulties and has a lower return margin.
Agricultural credit
Despite the adverse scenario, Tarciana reaffirmed that Banco do Brasil does not intend to abandon financing for agribusiness. The strategy, according to her, will be to improve risk analysis and differentiate producers who face financial difficulties from those who, in the institution's assessment, are able to pay, but cannot regularize their operations.
The president also highlighted the historical importance of the bank's relationship with the rural sector and stated that the institution will continue to serve customers with whom it has long-standing ties.
"We will continue lending to our agricultural client who is a lifelong partner. There are clients who have been with us for several generations", he declared.
The executive reinforced that the administration's priority is to recover profitability and preserve the bank's financial sustainability, without compromising its performance as one of the main financing institutions for Brazilian agribusiness.
