On March 1, 1971 the bank moved its head office from Belo Horizonte to São Paulo and assumed its current name Banco Real S.A. Clemente de Faria founded Banco da Lavoura de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, on 16 June 1925.
It was in the middle of this scenario of economic uncertainty that the lawyer Clemente de Faria - then 34 years old and quite popular as a result of a one-term mandate as state congressman - started a co-operative.
The co-operative's objective was to offer credit to farmers in Minas Gerais, thus allowing them access to financial resources that would, in turn, give them the opportunity to develop their activities.
Working with this constituency and adopting innovative solutions for the banking market of its time, "Lavoura", as it was called in Minas Gerais, began to distinguish itself.
Already in the following year, resting on solid foundations, Banco da Lavoura was able to survive the difficulties engendered by the international financial crisis (the crash of '29), which in turn brought economic instability to Brazil and culminated in the revolution of 1930.
Two years later, while the economy signalled the shrinking importance of coffee exports for the Brazilian trade balance, Banco da Lavoura crossed the borders of Minas Gerais and opened its first branch outside the state, in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
At the same time, Banco da Lavoura set up business in Amapá, thus helping with the integration of the then federal territory through the provision of credit for a company created to extract manganese, the mineral wealth of that region.