“…The LR and Wald tests indicated that the Tobit 1 and 2 models were globally valid (Table 4). In both, the higher the credit risk, the lower the technical efficiency of Brazilian credit unions, a result compatible with what was expected in this research and which corroborates other studies, such as Branco, Salgado, Cava et al (2017), Carneiro, Salgado Junior and Macoris (2016), Cava, Salgado, Branco et al (2016), Fiordelisi, Marques-Ibanez and Molyneux (2011), Hou, Wang and Zhang (2014, Sathye (2005) and Tabak, Craveiro and Cajueiro (2010). This negative relationship between credit risk and efficiency may indicate that managers, averse to risk, would tend to increase operating expenses for the evaluation and monitoring of loans, in an attempt to control the increase in defaults, which would have a negative impact in the bank's efficiency measure.…”