Our correspondent Priscila Iasbec interviewed exclusively Guilherme Benchimol, founder and executive chairman of the board of XP Inc. And for him, the foreign investor sees Brazil as the place to be. But despite this foreign optimism, problems related to Brazil's fiscal sector could drive foreigners away. Let's watch.
We are here doing another special interview on Brasil with Guilherme Benchimol, who is the founder of XP. Benchimol, thank you very much for talking with us on a special day, XP's 25th anniversary.
That's right. 25 years today. It seems like yesterday, but all that time has already passed. I've had the company longer than I've been alive, right? I started the company at 24, I'm 49, but the feeling is that we're just getting started.
Thinking today that the company has turned 25, what came to mind the most?
Ah, I started the company... the real story is that it was an adventure. I never imagined I would get where I got, right? At first I just wanted to survive. I started XP because I was fired, right? So I set up a company because I didn't want to be fired. At first I wanted to make some money, I wanted to support myself, and little by little things started connecting. I think you end up liking what you do well, right? I became a good investment advisor and then I learned how to build teams and to see the size of the opportunity at the end. I think when you open your mind a bit and understand what other investment companies around the world have done, you start adapting that story to your environment in Brazil, in my case. And I saw that Brazil really had a great opportunity. We have the highest banking concentration in the world, and that was — and still is — a great opportunity, right? So as you see that pain in society and you have a competent team that complements you, that was roughly the trajectory I built. But the hardest part is transforming yourself, because when I started the company, it was just me. Now there are 9,000 employees, 5 million clients, 2 trillion in assets. We have operations in New York, Miami, so you have to transform yourself many times, right? I think that's the hardest part of being an entrepreneur, starting from zero and reaching the stage where you're listed on the American exchange, right? But the reward is very great. It's good to see the impact you generate in society, the impact you generate for your partners, you see the teams growing, you see the awareness you bring about money in Brazil. So, people in Brazil still trust the manager, the savings account, so there's a great opportunity to create the figure of the investment advisor, to show that he can serve Brazilians better and better, helping Brazilians have more financial freedom, because when you take good care of your money, that's what you achieve in the medium and long term. So all of this gives me great pleasure, and what I want is to keep improving more and more.
You said in a recent interview that you would be tougher with the investment advisory arms. What did you mean by that?
No, not tougher. What I meant is that, well, I think when you're consolidating your business model, you want to grow, and sometimes your standard — your quality standard — is high, but growth clashes with quality. So I think in that respect the fault is mine alone, really, for having put growth and quality on the same level. And I think I was wrong in that respect. Quality comes first. We made that shift a few years ago. So I'm sure our 20,000 advisors today understood the move we made. And I think that's what will make XP bigger and bigger in the coming years, right? Being a company totally focused on quality, and that's what will make us... We have a super ambitious goal, which is by 2030 to be the largest investment company in Brazil. So I think, with all due modesty, today we are the best, and I think if we keep this focus — which is exactly what we're going to do — I'm sure we'll get there.
We're talking here at Brasil... you've been speaking with many businesspeople, with foreign investors. What do you hear most when you're talking behind the scenes? What's the corridor talk you hear from the foreign investor?
Brazil — Brazil is the place to be. There's a gigantic opportunity, much more so because there was a... so today there aren't many investable places in the world. The American economy will grow a little less than it grew in recent years. So when you have a somewhat weaker American economy, a weaker dollar, there's more dollar liquidity in the world. So, since there aren't many investable places, Brazil — being a continental country, with an established democracy, with an abundance of energy, etc. — ends up being extremely attractive. The main pain is precisely the fiscal issues. Brazil has a very high tax burden, and also a very high debt-to-GDP ratio. So there's a pain here: 'I'm going into Brazil, I'm going to buy reais, but if Brazil doesn't address the fiscal issues, I might leave Brazil at a dollar rate that I can't calculate correctly.' So I think if Brazil does its homework from a fiscal standpoint, I see a flood of dollars that could come into Brazil and help us make many direct investments, generate more jobs, more income. So I think there's a lot of optimism, but there is a certain — a certain skepticism, sorry — regarding the fiscal issues, which we know won't be addressed now in the election, but in 2027 it's a very important topic.
You talked about fiscal risk, which entails monetary risk, but there are also political risks in Brazil, right? We just went through — are going through — the Banco Master scandal. How do you see this type of risk also affecting investments and the foreign investor's view?
