This work uses a quasi-experimental credit reform in Brazil to understand the effects of financial liberalization and the channels through which it promotes economic growth. We use panel data for all 5,500 Brazilian municipalities and exploit legal issues underlying the policy in order to quantify the macroeconomic impacts of eliminating credit barriers in an open economy. The reform appears to rise total borrowing, besides stimulating other banking services. Our findings also indicate substantial increases in wages and business profits, and the reduction of the informal sector. Furthermore, the analysis suggests the presence of important dynamic effects and that impacts are greater in more opened, wealthier, less rural and more financially developed economies.