Briefs: Brazil's de Castro Dies; Debt Trading Pioneer

Jose Sergio Tavora de Castro, a Brazilian banker who played an active role in the Latin American debt restructurings during the 1980s and early 1990s, died Aug. 16 after a long illness. He was 64.

At the time of his death, Mr. de Castro was deputy regional director in charge of corporate and institutional banking at Banco Real's New York branch. Sao Paulo-based Grupo Real has nearly $15 billion of assets and ranks as the fifth-largest banking group in Brazil. Real has U.S. offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, and Miami.

Mr. de Castro helped launch emerging market debt trading by swapping $400 million worth of bank loans to Brazil for Mexican loans with a U.S. bank in 1984. Trading in emerging market debt has since grown to over $5 trillion annually.

Born in Fortaleza, Brazil, Mr. de Castro graduated from the Universidade Federal do Ceara in 1953 with a law degree and subsequently studied international law at Yale University. He joined Real from Petrobras, the Brazilian government-owned oil and gas company.

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