Brazil Savings Accounts Case Could Take Toll on Economy

Savers Seek Repayment Over Losses Tied to Government's Anti-Inflation Measures

Nov. 28, 2013 2:59 p.m. ET

BRASILIA—Brazil's inflationary past could come back to haunt the country's financial system as the Federal Supreme Court prepares to examine demands from savings depositors that could cost banks and the government tens of billions of dollars and further hamper economic growth.

The court will decide whether banks illegally underpaid returns on hundreds of thousands of savings accounts in the 1980s and 1990s when inflation was more than 5,000% per year. A succession of economic plans were introduced to tame inflation, but...

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