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Banco Santander Brasil (BSBR) Risk Analysis
Risk Overview Q4, 2025
Source: the company's latest filing for the period ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 27, 2026
Risk Change Over Time
- Debt & Financing - Risk 1Uncertainties arising from the liquidation of Banco Master and increased demands on the Brazilian deposit-insurance system (Fundo Garantidor de Créditos - FGC) could adversely affect financial institutions
In November 2025, the Brazilian Central Bank ordered the extrajudicial liquidation of Banco Master, following an administrative proceeding related to serious violations of financial regulations, liquidity issues and an ongoing criminal investigation involving alleged fraud schemes related to credit instruments. As a result, thousands of creditors became eligible for reimbursement through the Brazilian deposit-insurance system (Fundo Garantidor de Créditos) ("FGC"), representing one of the largest claims ever made on the FGC. Additional strain on the FGC may arise from related institutions, including Will Financeira (Will Bank), which was liquidated in January 2026 and may also require further FGC payouts. The scale of these payouts has prompted market discussions, including us, regarding potential changes to FGC coverage rules and contribution requirements applicable to financial institutions. These discussions include proposals to reduce coverage limits or impose higher contribution rates on institutions with riskier asset profiles. Any such regulatory or policy changes could increase contribution and funding costs, reduce credit availability, or impose additional capital levels compliance burdens on financial institutions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. These developments may also increase perceptions of systemic risk and lead to higher costs or reduced liquidity in bank funding markets. If similar situations were to arise involving other financial institutions, or if the FGC's capacity to meet future obligations were impaired, the broader financial system could experience increased volatility. Such conditions could adversely affect the Brazilian economy, the stability of financial markets, and the operating and funding costs of financial institutions, including ours.
Risk Highlights Q4, 2025
Risk Word Cloud
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 81
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they downgrade our ADRs or securities issued by other companies in our sector, the price and trading volume of our ADRs and/or our shares could decline.
The trading market for our ADRs and our shares has been affected in part by the research and reports that industry and financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts' reports and opinions. Furthermore, if one or more of the analysts downgrade our ADRs, our shares or our industry, change their views regarding the shares of any of our competitors, or other companies in our sector, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the market price of our ADRs and/or shares could decline. If one or more of these analysts stops providing reports or fails to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our ADR and/or share price or trading volume to decline.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2Discontinuation of the current corporate governance practices may negatively affect the price of our ADRs and units.
After completion of the voluntary exchange offers by Santander Spain in Brazil and in the United States for the acquisition of up to all of our shares that were not held by the Santander Group at that time, we are no longer subject to the obligations of the special listing segment of B3 known as the Level 2 corporate governance segment (the "Level 2 Segment"). For more information, see "Item 9. The Offer and Listing-C. Markets-Corporate Governance Practices." Currently, we voluntarily comply with certain of the corporate governance requirements for companies listed on the Level 2 Segment. Discontinuation, in whole or in part, of our existing corporate governance practices or minimum protections may adversely affect your rights as a security holder and may result in a decrease in the price of our shares, units and ADRs.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3Holders of ADRs may find it difficult to exercise voting rights at our shareholders' meetings.
Holders of ADRs are not our direct shareholders and are unable to enforce directly the rights of shareholders under our By-Laws and Brazilian Corporate Law. Holders of ADRs may exercise voting rights with respect to the units represented by ADRs only in accordance with the deposit agreement governing the ADRs. Holders of ADRs face practical limitations in exercising their voting rights because of the additional steps involved in our communications with ADR holders. For example, we are required to publish a notice of our shareholders' meetings in specified newspapers in Brazil. Holders of our units will be able to exercise their voting rights by attending a shareholders' meeting in person or voting by proxy. By contrast, holders of ADRs will receive notice of a shareholders' meeting by mail from the ADRs depositary following our notice to the depositary requesting the depositary to do so. To exercise their voting rights, holders of ADRs must instruct the ADR depositary on a timely basis on how they wish to vote. This voting process necessarily will take longer for holders of ADRs than for holders of our units or shares. If the ADR depositary fails to receive timely voting instructions for all or part of the ADRs, the depositary will assume that the holders of those ADRs are instructing it to give a discretionary proxy to a person designated by us to vote their ADRs, except in limited circumstances. Holders of ADRs also may not receive the voting materials in time to instruct the depositary to vote the units underlying their ADRs. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions of the holders of ADRs or for the manner of carrying out those voting instructions. Accordingly, holders of ADRs may not be able to exercise voting rights, and they will have little, if any, recourse if the units underlying their ADRs are not voted as requested.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4Our corporate disclosure may differ from disclosure regularly published by issuers of securities in other countries, including the United States.
Issuers of securities in Brazil are required to make public disclosures that are different from, and that may be reported under presentations that are not consistent with, disclosures required in other countries, including the United States. In particular, for regulatory purposes, we currently prepare and will continue to prepare and make available to our shareholders statutory financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB and Brazilian GAAP, both of which differ from U.S. GAAP in a number of respects. In addition, as a foreign private issuer, we are not subject to the same disclosure requirements in the United States as a domestic U.S. registrant under the Exchange Act, including the requirements to prepare and issue quarterly reports, the proxy rules applicable to domestic U.S. registrants under Section 14 of the Exchange Act or the insider reporting and short-swing profit rules under Section 16 of the Exchange Act. Accordingly, the information about us available to investors will not be the same as the information available to shareholders of a U.S. company and may be reported in a manner with which some investors may not be familiar.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 5Investors may find it difficult to enforce civil liabilities against us or our directors and officers.
The majority of our directors and officers reside outside the United States. In addition, all or a substantial portion of our assets and the assets of our directors and officers are located outside the United States. Although we have appointed an agent for service of process in any action against us in the United States with respect to our ADRs, none of our directors or officers has consented to service of process in the United States or to the jurisdiction of any U.S. court. As a result, it may not be possible for holders of our shares, units and/or ADRs to effect service of process against these other persons within the United States or other jurisdictions outside Brazil or to enforce against these other persons judgments obtained in the United States or other jurisdictions outside Brazil. Holders of our ADRs may face greater difficulties in protecting their interests due to actions by us or our directors or executive officers than would shareholders of a U.S. corporation, because judgments of U.S. courts for civil liabilities based upon the U.S. federal securities laws may only be enforced in Brazil if the judgment meets the following conditions: (i) it must comply with the formalities necessary for enforcement under the laws of the jurisdiction in which it was rendered; (ii) it must have been issued by a competent jurisdiction/court after proper service of process on the parties, which service must comply with Brazilian law if made in Brazil, or after sufficient evidence of the parties' absence (revelia) has been given, as required by applicable law; (iii) it must be final, binding and therefore not subject to appeal (res judicata) in the jurisdiction in which it was issued; (iv) it must be apostilled by a competent authority of the country from which the document emanates according to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents or, if such country is not signatory of the Hague Convention, it must be duly authenticated by a competent Brazilian consulate in the country where the foreign judgment is issued; (v) it must be accompanied by a translation thereof into Portuguese made by a certified translator in Brazil, unless an exemption is provided by an international treaty to which Brazil is a signatory; (vi) it must not be contrary to Brazilian national sovereignty, good morals or public policy or violate the dignity of the human person (as set forth in Brazilian law); (vii) it must not relate to a matter which is also subject to a similar proceeding in Brazil involving the same parties, based on the same grounds and with the same object, which has already been judged by a Brazilian court (res judicata); and (viii) it must not violate the exclusive jurisdiction of Brazilian courts pursuant to the provision of Article 23 of the Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure (Law No. 13,105/2015). Judgments which meet these criteria are not subject to an analysis of the merits or a retrial by Brazilian courts.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 6Holders of ADRs may be unable to exercise preemptive rights with respect to our units underlying the ADRs.
Holders of ADRs will be unable to exercise the preemptive rights relating to our units underlying ADRs unless a registration statement under the Securities Act is effective with respect to the shares for which those rights are exercisable or an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act is available. We are not obligated to file a registration statement with respect to the shares relating to these preemptive rights or to take any other action to make preemptive rights available to holders of units or ADRs. We may decide, at our discretion, not to file any such registration statement. If we do not file a registration statement or if we and the ADR depositary decide not to make preemptive rights available to holders of units or ADRs, those holders may receive only the net proceeds from the sale of their preemptive rights by the depositary, or if they are not sold, their preemptive rights will be allowed to lapse.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 7Holders of ADRs have different shareholders' rights than do shareholders of companies incorporated in the United States and certain other jurisdictions.
Our corporate affairs are governed by our By-Laws and by Brazilian Corporate Law, which may differ from the legal principles that would apply if we were incorporated in a jurisdiction in the United States or in certain other jurisdictions outside Brazil. Under Brazilian Corporate Law, holders of the ADRs are not our direct shareholders and have to exercise their voting rights through the depositary. Therefore, holders of ADRs may have fewer and less well-defined rights to protect their interests relative to actions taken by our board of directors or the holders of our common shares under Brazilian law than under the laws of other jurisdictions outside Brazil. Although Brazilian Corporate Law imposes restrictions on insider trading and price manipulation, the form of these regulations and the manner of their enforcement may differ from that in the U.S. securities markets or markets in certain other jurisdictions. In addition, in Brazil, self-dealing and the preservation of shareholder interests may be regulated differently, which could potentially disadvantage you as a holder of the preferred shares underlying ADRs.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 8Our status as a controlled company and a foreign private issuer exempts us from certain of the corporate governance standards of the New York Stock Exchange, or "NYSE," limiting the protections afforded to investors.
We are a "controlled company" and a "foreign private issuer" within the meaning of the NYSE corporate governance standards. Under the NYSE rules, a controlled company is exempt from certain NYSE corporate governance requirements. In addition, a foreign private issuer may elect to comply with the practice of its home country and not to comply with certain NYSE corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that (i) a majority of the board of directors consists of independent directors, (ii) a nominating and corporate governance committee be established that is composed entirely of independent directors and has a written charter addressing the committee's purpose and responsibilities, (iii) a compensation committee be established that is composed entirely of independent directors and has a written charter addressing the committee's purpose and responsibilities and (iv) an annual performance evaluation of the nominating and corporate governance and compensation committees be undertaken. Although we have similar practices, they do not entirely conform to the NYSE requirements; therefore, we currently use these exemptions and intend to continue using them. Accordingly, you will not have the same protections provided to shareholders of companies that are subject to all NYSE corporate governance requirements.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 9Our ultimate controlling shareholder has a great deal of influence over our business, and its interests could conflict with ours.
As of January 31, 2026, Santander Spain, our ultimate controlling shareholder, currently owns, directly and indirectly, approximately 89.53% of our total capital. Due to its share ownership, our controlling shareholder has the power to control us and our subsidiaries, including the power to: - elect a majority of our directors that appoint our executive officers, set our management policies and exercise overall control over our Company and subsidiaries;- influence the appointment of our principal officers;- declare the payment of any dividends;- agree to sell or otherwise transfer its controlling stake in our Company; and - determine the outcome of substantially all actions requiring shareholder approval, including amendments of our bylaws, transactions with related parties, corporate reorganizations, acquisitions and dispositions of assets, and dividends. We operate as a standalone subsidiary within the Santander Group. Our controlling shareholder has no liability for our banking operations, except for the amount of its holdings of our capital stock and for other specific limited circumstances under Brazilian law. The interests of Santander Spain may differ from the interests of our other shareholders, and the concentration of control in Santander Spain will limit other shareholders' ability to influence corporate matters. As a result, we may take actions that our other shareholders do not view as beneficial.
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