After nine consecutive quarters of improving results, Bradesco has shown the market that it can combine its physical and digital businesses simultaneously, leaving behind its image as a cumbersome bank dependent on branches and under pressure to meet profitability demands.

"We are a large digital bank, but with a large physical presence," said Cassiano Scarpelli, CFO of Bradesco, on the program Números Falam .

Produced by NeoFeed and CNN Brazil, and broadcast bi-weekly at 7:45 PM on Fridays on CNN Money, the program showed how Bradesco's recent transformation involves artificial intelligence, hyper-personalization of customers, efficiency gains, and revenue growth without increasing risk on its balance sheet.

“We’ve turned the corner on efficiency. And now we’re heading to the next block,” Scarpelli stated.

Since Marcelo Noronha took over as president of the bank at the end of 2023, Bradesco has been reducing its physical structure and increasing productivity, resulting in efficiency gains.

In the first quarter of this year, Bradesco's recurring net profit reached R$ 6.8 billion, a 16.1% increase over the same period of the previous year. Total revenues grew 14.1%, to R$ 36.9 billion. The financial margin with clients remained above 9%, while the efficiency ratio fell to 46.9%.

“This was the ninth consecutive quarter that we delivered within the step-by-step culture. Transformation is not an event. It's a five-year project,” stated the CFO of Bradesco.

In this strategy, Bradesco reorganized its credit areas, strengthened its technology teams, expanded the use of artificial intelligence, and revamped virtually its entire commercial segmentation.

According to Scarpelli, the bank is already spending four times more hours developing systems than it did at the end of 2023.
The bank processed more than 1.5 million transactions daily at physical teller windows before the pandemic. Today, that number has dropped to around 90,000.

During the same period, the physical network shrank. The bank went from approximately 7,000 business units to just over 3,000.

At the same time, it uses data tools and hyper-personalization to find credit opportunities within its own customer base.

“We don’t want to buy market share, we want to grow within our fair share ,” said Scarpelli. “Today, 99% of our transactions are digital. We, the incumbents, are also digital banks.”

Bradesco continues to grow in segments such as vehicle financing, payroll loans, and secured credit lines, but continually emphasizes that it does not intend to repeat an aggressive expansion strategy. "The banking game is about risk. You always have to get that margin right," said the CFO.

On the B3 stock exchange, the preferred shares BBDC4, the bank's most traded stock, are down 2.2% this year, but up 10.8% over the last 12 months. Bradesco's market capitalization is R$ 176.75 billion.