The 1950s mark the beginning of the Bank’s rise. At the time, a vast study was made of the economy, the appreciation of which formed the scientific basis for the birth of the institution. With the support of technical cooperation from international missions, pioneer work began, including the experiment with supervised rural credit, in conjunction with the Northeast Credit and Rural Assistance Association – ANCAR, aid for cooperatives and introduction of practices for elaboration and evaluation of projects as a pre-requisite for granting loans. The main aim was to implement a new business mentality within the Region.

1952/creation

Upon returning from a trip to the Northeast to see the damage caused by the 1951 drought firsthand, the then Minister of Tax, Horácio Láfer made a presentation to President Getúlio Vargas of the motivational foundation for the law that would create the Bank.

With this initiative by the President of the Republic (Getúlio Vargas), Act No.1649 of 19/07/1952 created Banco do Nordeste do Brasil S.A. with the objective of encouraging development of the Northeast region which, beset by Constant droughts and the lack of stable resources, lacked a financial body capable of structuring its economy.

1954/ETENE

On January 18th, in Fortaleza (CE) the General Assembly for Constitution of the Banco do Nordeste was held, in the presence of business leaders, politicians, academics and defenders of the cause of regional development. On June 7th, also in Fortaleza, the first branch of Banco do Nordeste was unveiled, one of the nine authorized by the Assembly which constituted the Bank.

As provided for in the very Act that created the Bank, the Technical Office for Economic Studies of the Northeast (ETENE) began to organize itself in the first months of 1954 and counted on the technical cooperation of high-level external missions, which supported the Bank in its first steps. The ETENE has, over the course of its history, kept the Bank different from other financial institutions, due to the generation of one of the most consistent and respected databases about the economy and other aspects of Northeast Brazilian reality.

1956/GTDN

By initiative of Banco do Nordeste, the Work Group for Development of the Northeast (GTDN) was created on 14/12/56, operating under the guidance of a representative of the Bank together with the Republican Presidential Development Board. This body was transformed into the Council for Development of the Northeast (CODENO) and had a decisive role in the creation of the Superintendency for Development of the Northeast (SUDENE), in 1959.

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