Bank and credit instruments
CDB — bank certificates of deposit
4 min
A CDB (Certificado de Depósito Bancário) is a bond issued by a bank. You lend the bank money and it pays you interest; the bank uses the funds to finance its lending. It is the most common private fixed-income instrument in Brazil and a direct competitor to poupança.
How CDBs are quoted
Most CDBs are floating, quoted as a percentage of CDI:
- "100% of CDI" — you earn the full CDI accumulation.
- "110% of CDI" — more generous, often from smaller banks paying up for funding.
- Some are prefixed ("12% a.a.") or inflation-linked ("IPCA + 5%").
As a rule, smaller and less-established banks offer higher percentages of CDI precisely because they carry more credit risk — which is exactly why the FGC guarantee (covered later) matters so much here.
Liquidity varies — read the terms
- Daily liquidity (liquidez diária) CDBs let you redeem any business day — good for reserves.
- At-maturity CDBs lock your money until a set date and usually pay more in exchange.
Never assume a CDB is liquid; check the redemption terms before buying.
Taxes
CDB gains are subject to income tax on the regressive table (covered in the final chapter), withheld automatically at redemption. This is a key difference from the tax-free LCI/LCA we cover next.
When to use it
A daily-liquidity CDB at a high percentage of CDI is a strong, FGC-protected alternative to poupança for an emergency fund; a longer at-maturity CDB can pay more for money you can commit. Always compare the post-tax return — the next instruments are tax-exempt, which changes the maths.
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