In 1924 João Moreira Salles established the Casa Bancária Moreira Salles (Moreira Salles Banking House) in the town of Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The bank has offices in Asuncion, Buenos Aires, Cayman Islands, Dubai, Hong Kong, Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Montevideo, Nassau, New York, Santiago, Shanghai and Tokyo On August 22, 2009, Itaú Unibanco and insurance company Porto Seguro disclosed that they had entered into an alliance.
Currently the company its owned by the Brazilian billionaire Jayme Garfinkel and the bank Itaú Unibanco, through PSIUPAR (Porto Seguro Itaú Unibanco Participações S.A.).