BRICS: Cooperation Agreement Between Saudi and Brazilian Banks

Focus on strengthening Saudi Arabia's non-oil exports to South American markets

Nelson Barbosa e Saad Al-Khalab

Brazil, one of the founding members of BRICS, and Saudi Arabia, a BRICS member country starting January 2024, have reached an important agreement in the financial sector. A memorandum of understanding was signed on the sidelines of the visit in recent days to Rio de Janeiro of an official delegation from Riyadh, led by Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Ibrahim Alkhorayef, to strengthen cooperation between the Saudi Exim Bank for Foreign Trade and Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).

Saad Al-Khalab, CEO of the Saudi bank, and Nelson Barbosa, director of planning at BNDES, said in a joint statement after the signing that the agreement aims to “strengthen economic and financial ties and expand trade relations between Saudi Arabia and Brazil, with special attention devoted to strengthening Saudi non-oil exports to South American markets.”

Brazil and Saudi Arabia also discussed bilateral cooperation and coordination between the two countries’ oil and gas industries. Brazil produced about 2.69 million barrels of oil per day in the second quarter of 2024, an increase of 2.4% year-on-year, but also a decrease of 2.8% compared to the period from January to March 2024.