Banco Safra SA Posts Record Dividend Payment Ahead of Tax Hike

Banco Safra SA, a leading Brazilian bank, paid 11 billion reais (approximately $2 billion) in dividends and interest to its parent company owners in 2025, surpassing the previous high since at least 2016. This payment is more than seven times the 2024 dividend and interest payment and more than twice the bank's 2024 profit of 4.4 billion reais.

The dividend payment was largely fueled by retained profits from previous years, accounting for 60% of the total. This trend is not unique to Banco Safra SA, as many Brazilian companies paid record dividends in 2024 to beat the upcoming tax hike. The change in tax laws will see dividends over 50,000 reais taxed at 10% and interest over capital at 17.5%, up from the previous 15% rate.

Itau Unibanco Holding SA, another prominent Brazilian bank, reported 46.9 billion reais in profits last year, with dividend and interest over capital payments totaling 48.3 billion reais.

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The Safra family, a prominent banking and wealth-management clan with interests spanning Brazil, the US, and Switzerland, has benefitted significantly from the dividend payments made by Banco Safra SA. Vicky Safra, the 73-year-old head of the family, has an estimated fortune of $27.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The family's assets include J. Safra Sarasin, a Swiss-based wealth-management firm with nearly $288 billion in assets under management.