Banco Master
“Can an aggressive high-yield CDB funding model plus a fintech card issuer be turned into a scaled Brazilian digital bank — a question answered in the negative by the November 2025 BCB-decreed liquidation.”
Founded in 1974 as Banco Máxima, the institution was reborn in 2021 as Banco Master under majority shareholder Daniel Vorcaro, aggressively positioning itself as a mid-size digital bank offering credit, FX and investments. The bank grew rapidly through high-yield CDB issuance and the 2024 acquisition of Will Bank (a Mastercard-issuing fintech). In 2025 the strategy collapsed: FGC extended a R$4bn liquidity line, a deal with BRB failed to close, and on 18 November 2025 the Banco Central do Brasil decreed extrajudicial liquidation across Banco Master S.A., Banco Master de Investimento S.A. and Banco Letsbank S.A. Trade press reports the FGC faces an estimated R$41bn loss — reportedly the largest single-institution loss in the fund's history — and Vorcaro is under federal investigation for alleged fraud.