Banks pressure Lula to avoid 'noise' amid calls for cuts

247 – After meeting with President Lula this Wednesday (16th), banks urged the federal government to seek "economic" and "fiscal balance."

"President Lula has a direct line with the bank presidents. We asked Minister Haddad for this meeting two months ago. Lula told us assertively that there is no room for mistakes so that the economy continues to grow with fiscal balance. We told Lula that it's necessary to dissipate the noise. We appealed to the government to be persistent in maintaining economic balance so that we can grow sustainably," said the president of the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban), Isaac Sidney, as quoted by the newspaper Valor Econômico.

He also stated that various topics were discussed during the meeting: "We discussed several issues, such as credit and betting. We expressed to the president our concern about families' indebtedness with betting. The government must be prepared to oversee this. Besides the government, there are implications for the market and the economy. We want to delve deeper into this topic [betting]."