Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. is a massive Brazilian commercial banking multinational in Latin America. The giant financial services corporation traces its roots in Brazil to two commercial banks founded in the 1930s and 1940s respectively. The first of the two began as a small grocery store in the state of Minas Gerais ran by the late João Moreira Salles in 1924. Financial activities soon followed backing coffee growers in the state. Initially known as Casa Moreira Salles S.A., the operation became a full-fledged commercial bank in 1933 having been renamed by João’s son Walter Moreira Salles who took over from his father then greatly expanding the scope of financing activities. Known then as Casa Bancária Moreira Salles S.A., the institution grew immensely mostly though organic means after being the choice of preference among coffee plantation owners countrywide. The other financial institution and second of the two was founded in the Greater São Paulo area in 1945 as Banco Central de Crédito S.A. by the late Alfredo Egydio de Souza Aranha. The latter retired soon afterwards with the operation taken over by his nephew Olavo Egydio Setúbal and his son-in-law Eudoro Libânio Villela. Having been renamed upon the change of leadership as Banco Federal de Crédito S.A., the operation grew exponentially through several acquisitions in Brazil and with a focus on financing commerce including merchants of all types. Moreover, I can summarize the spree of acquisitions the companies undertook separately in the following paragraph including the subsequent renaming of Casa Bancária Moreira Salles after merging with three regional banks and up until the merger of the two financial giants in Brazil.
In 1961, Banco Federal de Crédito acquires Banco Paulista de Comércio S.A., a major commercial bank in the state of São Paulo. In 1964, the merger between Banco Federal de Crédito and Banco Itaú S.A. takes place, becoming Banco Federal Itaú S.A. In 1966, Banco Federal Itaú launches Banco Federal Itaú de Investimentos, a full-service investment bank in Brazil. In 1967, Casa Bancária Moreira Salles acquires Banco Agrícola Mercantil S.A., the state-owned commercial bank of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. In 1973, Banco Federal Itaú becomes Banco Itaú S.A. after adopting a shortened name while renaming the institution. In 1975, Casa Bancária Moreira Salles becomes Unibanco S.A. after merging with three regional banks in Brazil adopting a different name while renaming the institution. In 1998, Banco Itaú acquires Banco do Estado de Minas Gerais, the state-owned commercial bank of the state of Minas Gerais. In 2001, Banco Itaú acquires Banco do Estado de Goiás S.A., the state-owned commercial bank of the state of Goiás. In 2002, Banco Itaú acquires Banco Fiat S.A., the commercial bank owned by the automotive Italian multinational on Brazilian soil. In 2004, Pedro Moreira Salles becomes CEO of Unibanco after the passing of his father, the late Walter Moreira Salles, in 2001. Having been trained at UCLA after earning undergraduate degrees there in Economics and History while groomed to take the reins himself as a banker in Unibanco, he spearheaded the effort to expand abroad after merging with Banco Itaú shortly thereafter.
Furthermore, the two financial giants, namely Banco Itaú and Unibanco, merged in 2008 creating in the process a Brazilian banking colossus with tentacles everywhere in Brazil while catapulting it as the biggest financial services company operating in Latin America with business plans for aggressive expansion abroad. Today, Itaú Unibanco Holding is a massive Brazilian commercial banking multinational operating in several countries across the globe including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, the US, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland, the UK, China, Hong Kong, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. Altogether, the Brazilian banking champion operates over 4,300 branches in Brazil alone, has over 30 thousand ATMs regionally and over 90 thousand employees on its payroll belonging to various nations globally. Similarly, the bank reported over $ 32 billion in total consolidated revenues in 2025 and over $ 8 billion in profits in the same year as well. It has 680 million customers affiliated with its services worldwide and commands $ 633 billion in assets, an impressive figure representing a quarter or 25% of the entire Brazilian banking system and one tenth or 10% of the one across all of Latin America combined currently at roughly $ 6 trillion in assets. By the same token, its lineup of services includes personal loans, credit cards, checking accounts, saving accounts, life insurance, home mortgages, home equity loans, homeowners insurance, business loans, trade finance, car loans, car insurance, financial wallets, digital wallets, mobile payment platforms, brokerage accounts, crypto products and asset management services. In similar fashion, the entity has $ 198 billion in assets under management or AUM presently placing it as the third largest Brazilian asset manager and reaches a market value of over $ 100 billion right at the moment, only three companies in the region achieve this feat. The other ones being Banco BTG Pactual S.A. and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known as Petrobras, both of them Brazilian corporations. Moreover, I can summarize the most important deals the company has undergone expanding services regionally since the merger in the following paragraph.
In 2008, the merger between Banco Itaú S.A. and Unibanco S.A. takes place, becoming the leading financial institution in Brazil and renamed as Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. In 2014, Itaú Unibanco Holding acquires Corpbanca S.A. in Chile, becoming the fourth largest commercial bank in the country. In 2016, Itaú Unibanco Holding acquires Citibank’s retail operations in Brazil vastly growing its banking branch network accordingly with the widest reach on Brazilian ground among all the major commercial banks in the country. In 2017, Itaú Unibanco Holding acquires an economic interest of 49.9% in XP Investimentos S.A., an innovative and newcomer financial services player in Brazil offering brokerage and asset management tailored solutions including mutual funds and exchanged traded funds or ETFs with both active and passive features tracking local indexes. In 2021, Itaú Unibanco Holding incorporates its asset management wholly-owned subsidiary in Brazil while renaming it as Itaú Unibanco Asset Management Limitada.
On the other hand, Itaú Unibanco Holding has a complex publicly-traded structure with a free float of one quarter or 25% of its total share capital. The remaining three quarters or 75% of its outstanding share capital comes from the controlling duo consisting of ESA Company Family Office Limitada primarily through Itaúsa Investimentos Itaú S.A. and Companhia E. Johnston de Participações S.A. through Itaú Unibanco Participações S.A. or IUPAR. Overall, through indirect holding structures, the Moreira Salles brothers are the single largest shareholders of Itaú Unibanco Holding with an ownership stake of 18.75% in the company. ESA Company Family Office Limitada is the family office of the related Villela and Setúbal banking clans. In fact, ESA stands for Egydio de Souza Aranha. The Camargo sisters also participate in the ownership of the bank with a minority shareholding through Itaúsa. The latter is a listed holding company in Brazil controlled by the related Villela and Setúbal banking clans through ESA Company Family Office Limitada. The control comes from holding a 34% ownership stake in Itaúsa with super-voting common stock effectively attaining voting control. Itaúsa in turn holds a 37.5% economic interest in Itaú Unibanco Holding with voting control. Companhia E. Johnston de Participações S.A. owns half of IUPAR and is a closely-held holding company belonging in its entirety to the Moreira Salles brothers. The other half of IUPAR is owned by Itaúsa. Likewise, IUPAR owns 37.5% of Itaú Unibanco Holding. All told, the brothers have a family office known as Brasil Warrant Gestão de Investimentos Limitada holding an impressive $ 11 billion in assets from reinvested dividends alone.
To conclude, Itaú Unibanco Holding has minted eight billionaires currently ranked by Forbes. These billionaires are the Moreira Salles brothers, namely Pedro Moreira Salles, Fernando Roberto Moreira Salles, João Moreira Salles and Walter Moreira Salles Junior, all of them sons of the late Walter Moreira Salles, and the Villela banking clan. The latter includes Alfredo Egydio Arruda Villela Filho, Ana Lucia de Mattos Barreto Villela, Ricardo Villela Marino and Rodolfo Villela Marino, all of them grandchildren of the late Eudoro Libânio Villela. The Setúbal brothers, namely Alfredo Egydio Setúbal and Roberto Egydio Setúbal, are presumed to command billionaire fortunes themselves but wishing to remain low key, both of them sons of the late Olavo Egydio Setúbal. Moreover, Pedro Moreira Salles keeps chairing the board having relinquished his CEO role a few years after the merger with Banco Itaú. In fact, the current CEO of the banking colossus is Milton Maluhy Filho, an insider from Itaú Unibanco Holding with a solid track-record in various roles throughout his long career at the company including the job titles of CFO and CRO or Chief Risk Officer before assuming the presidency in 2021. The CEO running the day-to-day operations of ESA Company Family Office Limitada, the family office affiliated with the related Villela and Setúbal banking clans, is Suzana Weiss Minerbo, a female Brazilian trained in Brazil with an MBA from Insper Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa, a top Brazilian business school initially now offering additional degrees in economics, law and engineering. In addition, Alfredo Egydio Setúbal is the CEO of Itaúsa and various other related entities controlled by the listed holding company.