Page 75 - Sicredi

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perada. “A gente só conseguiu vencer pelo comprometimento que tinham os associados com o empreendimento cooperativo. Os associados se su- jeitavam a isso, mas continuavam firmes com a cooperativa”, observa Orlando Borges Müller.
À medida que perdurava a relação com o Banco do Brasil, as cooperativas se sentiam mais incomodadas com a situação e passavam a temer o risco de serem vistas como correspondentes daquele banco. En- tre as lideranças, reforçava-se a convicção de que era preciso recuperar a independência do Estado para manter a característica de empreendi- mento cooperativo. “Ali, nascia a encruzilhada que levou o Sistema a se conduzir sob dois matizes: efetivamente tornar-se um braço operacional do Banco do Brasil, ou afirmar que o Estado brasileiro passaria a ser um Estado de livre comércio, de economia de mercado, democrático, onde o Estado passaria a ter um papel mais de regulação e menos de operação, e que as empresas, entre elas as sociedades cooperativas, seriam instru- mento para o sucesso desse próprio Estado”, explica Ademar Schardong.
Para as cooperativas, essa encruzilhada, à qual Schardong faz re- ferência em seu relato, significava a opção entre ser banco ou ter um banco. Já havia o entendimento de que, para ser um banco, seria preciso abrir
Memória
Looking back
all of this, but they remained dedicated to the credit unions,” Orlando Borges Müller observes.
As the relationship with Bank of Brazil continued, credit unions became troubled with the situation, fearful of being viewed as agents of the Bank. The leaders grew more convinced that they had to regain their independence from the State to maintain their cooperative character. “This situation reached a crossroads, where the System was operating under two different camps: effectively operate
as an arm of Bank of Brazil, or affirm that the Brazilian government would become a government of free trade
with a market economy, democratic,
in which the State would have more of a regulatory role with less control, and that companies, including cooperative societies, would be instruments of success of this very State,” Ademar Schardong explains.
For the credit unions, this crossroads, which Schardong refers to in his account, meant choosing between being a bank or having a bank. It was already understood that to be a bank,
it would be necessary to give up what is today Sicredi’s main competitive advantage: operating as a cooperative. The leadership therefore decided, “to proceed with a project that transcended