The Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos (lit. 'Brazilian Post and Telegraph Corporation', abbr. ECT), also known as Correios, is a state-owned company that has operated the national postal service of Brazil since the 17th century.[3]
The ECT created and manages the Brazilian postal code system known as Código de Endereçamento Postal. It also provides an e-commerce platform (CorreiosNet Shopping), banking (Banco Postal) acting as proxy of Banco do Brasil,[4] Boleto bill payment collection and express mail service Sedex, with its international service network reaching more than 220 countries worldwide. It is the largest employer in Brazil, with more than 109,000 employees, both internal and outsourced, and is the only company to be present in all municipalities in the country,[5] with a wide network of owned and franchised units. The company is fully owned by the Federal Government of Brazil and subordinated to the Ministry of Communications (MCom).