Bradesco has worked hard over the past two decades to establish itself as one of the leading technological companies in Latin America. Bradesco was the first bank in Brazil to go online and the fifth worldwide. Today it has 1.2 million registered users of its Internet banking services. Today Bradesco continues its single-minded mission to become a so-called “click” bank.

Bradesco’s commitment to new technology is obvious. Just this year the bank has introduced a service that allows customers to trade on the Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo directly from their homes. The bank also announced free Internet access this year for all its customers. In the state of Sao Paulo, clients can communicate directly with the bank’s computers, utilizing a voice recognition system that can identify more than 5,000 different accents and vocal tones with precision and even respond to such complex issues as the calculation of a credit operation or the sale of stocks.

For financial institutions further down the technology curve, it is interesting to see Bradesco underlining the continuing importance of its customers. While there is a widely held belief that customers should be able to log onto their computers at home and access the widest possible range of services, these same customers can walk into any branch of Bradesco at any time for a consultation. In fact, Bradesco seems to be projecting an image not of a “click” bank, but a “click and brick” bank. Even when coins, notes, and even checks become a thing of the past, no automated process can ever ultimately substitute the need for human contact.

Bradesco’s 67,000 employees have also been trained to new standards to cope with the uncharted demands of working with customers in the digital era.

Obviously security is a continuing issue – and not just in Latin America. Bradesco is fortunate to have behind it almost 60 years of business and the trust that accrues over such a long period. It is perhaps no surprise, therefore, that more than 2,000 new clients every day turn to Bradesco’s Internet banking services.

Bradesco has another head start over some of its competitors: the bank has a client base of over 9.5 million and more than 750,000 companies are connected to Bradesco’s computers. The cross-marketing benefits are clear.

In general, the more forward-looking of Brazil’s banks are in a strong position. Last year, in 1999, $200 million worth of business was transacted by the business-to-consumer sector, according to the Edge Group. However, that figure could be closer to the $4 billion mark by 2003. Those best able to demonstrate a secure track record and a good history of security will be in the strongest position to benefit. It may well be true that the bank portals, therefore, will win out over the independent companies offering similar services.

Again, Bradesco makes much of the security its portal offers. For example, no credit card numbers are ever archived following a transaction on the Bradesco system. Equally, the bank acts as a guarantor on sales validated by the Bradesco portal, should a mistake occur.

So what can we expect from Bradesco in the future? In the immediate future we can expect to see a new electronic solution side-by-side traditional automated cash machines. Bradesco’s “Web Points” program will give access to portal purchasing and consulting to all who carry a Bradesco card.

More generally, Brazil is certainly a market to watch. Recent studies by the Angus Reid group reveal that, proportionally, more Brazilians use Internet banking services than Americans – an extraordinary piece of information that could be explained by the stratospheric inflation of a few years ago during which banks were forced to innovate technologically. Indeed, even as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has noted, no other place in the world assimilated online banking technology as quickly as Brazil.

Luiz Carlos Trabuco is a vice president at Bradesco.