Brazilian banks have developed innovative initiatives to deliver financial services for the low-income population through correspondent banking (CB). Banco Lemon is such an interesting case to be studied because it has implemented a business model based exclusively on CB outlets and its focus was on low-income clients. This paper describes Banco Lemon's adoption process of the CB technology to deliver financial services for the low-income population, promoting a historical description of the bank's activities, since its creation and up to the year 2009. Eventually, this paper concludes that bill payment initiatives were successful while credit initiatives led to unexpressive outcomes.
Correspondent Banking; Branchless Banking; Information and Communication Technologies for Development; Inclusive Finance; Microfinance; Banco Lemon