Detailed narrative
Revenue-led turnaround, seven quarters in
Management framed the quarter as the continuation of a consistent, secure profitability build following the transformation plan: recurring net income of BRL 6.2B (+2.3% YoY) and recurring ROE of 14.7%. Total revenue of BRL 30B grew 13.1% YoY with gains in almost every line — NII, fee and commission income (+~7%), and the insurance group (+13%).
The core driver cited is deeper penetration of the existing individual and corporate base plus improved customer experience, which management argues is what allows constant growth across all revenue lines.
Credit quality and the wholesale one-off
Cost of credit rose ~BRL 500M QoQ, taking wholesale cost of credit from a normal ~BRL 200-300M to ~BRL 500M. Management attributed this to a single one-off📎 corporate/wholesale case (~BRL 200M deviation; ~BRL 354M in the specific case per Q&A), fully provisioned with good coverage and no further provisioning expected, plus John Deere Bank consolidation coverage.
Ex those items, cost of risk would have been flat; average cost of risk was 3.2% versus 3.3%. Over-90 NPL stood at 4.1% in September with a stable 4.1% base case for December.
Payroll loan strategy — private, INSS and public
The payroll book ended the quarter at ~BRL 102B with ~14.2% overall share (largest among private banks); segment shares were cited as INSS/Social Security 15.4%, public 14.3% and private 7.5%. Bradesco was deliberately conservative on the new private payroll product — lending only to established employer relationships and employees with at least one year of tenure — holding delinquency at ~3% versus a market ~11-12%.
INSS market production fell from BRL 7.5B to BRL 3.5B after first-half rule changes. With a now-scalable risk model, management is opening policy and accelerating private, INSS and public payroll into 2026.
SME and secured-lending growth
SME/micro lending grew ~25% YoY, with Bradesco moving to leadership (>20% share, up from ~18% and #2) among companies with revenue up to BRL 200M — and up to BRL 50M for the company segment. Growth is heavily collateralized via FGI/FGO guarantees, discount of receivables and rural credit; the rural book also grew 25%.
SME NPL is falling as new, secured cohorts season well. Corporate/middle-market (BRL 50M-1B revenue) carries higher upfront expected-loss provisioning even where Stage 3 delinquency does not move.
Expense discipline and accelerated footprint cuts
Operating expenses grew 9.6% YoY, but 8.5% excluding EloPar and Cielo consolidation; personnel plus admin expenses rose 5.5%, or just 2.5% excluding higher variable compensation. Admin expenses were down YTD/YoY, with a BRL 140M quarterly increase concentrated in technology and Elo/Alelo (whose admin expenses grew >20% on volume).
The footprint was cut by 1,269 points this year (vs ~1,600 in the prior 12 months), ahead of plan, which raised near-term labor provisions that management expects to normalize in 2026.
Efficiency as the next ROE lever
With cost of equity (~13-13.5%) now within reach, management repositioned the profitability story around the efficiency ratio, guiding to a ~10-percentage-point decline across 2026-2028. Cassiano cited ~800 bps of improvement bringing efficiency toward 50-52%, versus 48% at the plan's February-2024 launch and a ~40% ultimate goal.
Both executives argued this revenue-led jaws — strong revenues with controlled opex — is the main, and currently under-priced, driver of medium-term ROE, alongside team engagement (survey participation up to 84% from 74%).
Insurance group consistency
The insurance group delivered ROAE above 21% with results growing ~13% YoY and, per management, three consecutive quarters of linear growth. Operating results rose ~10.2% and financial results ~18.3%, while technical provisions reached BRL 435B (+10.5%). Growth was broad: health +9% (with ~75,000 net new lives in the quarter and continued momentum in October), life ~+10%, VGBL pension portability, and business/real estate/equipment lines ~+15%.
Management cited underwriting discipline and anti-fraud efforts as supporting a sustainable claims ratio at Bradesco Saúde.
GenAI and digital transformation
Bradesco reported a 109% increase in development productivity this year from intensive GenAI use, plus a new AI-built income model that cut creation time by 95%. Its assistant BIA reported a 90% retention rate on chat and features such as fix-by-voice and enhanced biometric security.
More than 14 million customers are fully digital, supported by 39,000+ Bradesco Expresso correspondents across 5,600+ municipalities; over 11,000 people now work under enterprise agility. Global Solutions cash management was enabled to 100% of wholesale clients, and the SME app added self-service Pronampe and Procredit lending.