BTG Pactual rebuilt Banco Pan from a R$4.3bn fraud hole to R$777m profit

Banco PanAmericano, controlled by Grupo Silvio Santos, saw an accounting fraud revealed in November 2010 that turned into a R$4.3bn hole. On January 31, 2011, BTG Pactual announced it was buying control — 51% of the voting shares — for R$450m, and state bank Caixa planned to provide R$8-10bn of liquidity to keep the institution standing.

BTG Pactual and Caixa stabilized the bank and, over the following decade, BTG moved it from legacy consumer lending to a digital model: app-first credit products such as consignado, vehicle loans and FGTS advances, plus the e-commerce marketplaces Mosaico and Mobiauto that link shopping with banking.

The model scaled. In 2022 Banco Pan ended the year with 23.7m clients, up 39%, a credit portfolio of R$39bn and adjusted net profit of R$773m, with service revenue up 40% to over R$1bn and transaction volume doubling to R$86bn. The CEO at the time credited conservative credit underwriting and investment in the customer journey.

In 2023 the bank reported adjusted net profit of R$777m, roughly flat on 2022, with 28m clients, up 18%, a credit portfolio of R$41.8bn, total assets of R$57.8bn and an ROE of 11.1%. The former scandal-hit lender had become a profitable, BTG-controlled digital bank listed on Brazil's B3 exchange.

From a lender needing a R$4.3bn rescue, Pan grew to 28m clients and R$41.8bn of credit by 2023, posting R$777m of adjusted net profit with an 11.1% ROE.

The R$450m control purchase priced a distressed franchise cheaply, and Caixa's liquidity support kept it alive through the cleanup.

Going digital-first let Pan acquire customers at scale — 23.7m by 2022, up 39% — without building a costly branch network.

Diversifying into fees and commerce lifted service revenue 40% in 2022 and reduced dependence on lending spreads.

A rescue can be a strategy: BTG Pactual bought a broken lender for R$450m, rebuilt it as a digital bank, and scale plus fee income — not risky lending — carried profit to R$777m.

By 2023-24 Banco Pan was a profitable digital bank controlled by BTG Pactual, a stark contrast with the 2010 fraud that nearly sank it. Its trajectory became Brazil's standard example of turning a scandal-hit lender into a fintech-scale business through patient ownership and a model change.