the contribution of financial statements in the granting credit process: a case study of são paulo city

The granting credit analysis process is important to the development of any country. This research aims to describe the use of financial statement analysis within the context of the financial institutions credit granting process. We propose to identify the relevance of accounting information for credit analysis and how this information influences a final decision. We tried to establish a conclusion of this importance, performing case studies by applying interview with credit professionals from different financial institutions headquartered in São Paulo. The research technique was the semi-structured interview tied to a research protocol. Research reveals that the financial statements represent 70% of the opinion of the credit granting. In addition to the statements the banks are used other tools to grant or not the credit. It follows that the principles of realization of the financial statements must be followed in order to not harm the organizations in any credit application with financial institutions.