EVOLUTION AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF BRAZILIAN CREDIT COOPERATIVES: AN APPLICATION OF THE PEARLS SYSTEM (2009-2018)

The present study aimed to evaluate aspects related to the evolution and financial performance of Brazilian credit unions from 2009 to 2018, based on a sample of 81 cooperatives, selected according to the S4 segmentation of the National Financial System. To this end, it used the indicators of the PEARLS System to analyze the evolution and comparability to the standard indices, and, through the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method, analyze the factors that impacted the financial performance. The main results showed that the credit unions studied showed good profitability in the period, however, they did not meet the recommendations of the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) regarding the goals established for the analyzed indicators. Regarding financial performance, the results showed that net institutional capital, net loan portfolio and asset quality present a direct and positive relationship, with a statistical significance level of 1%, indicating that the increase in the loan and capital portfolio institutional, are associated with default, serving as a warning to anticipate problems of insolvency.