Banco Central do Brasil
This article will provide an introduction on the main operations and responsibilities of the Central Bank of Brazil.
The Central Bank of Brazil, known by the acronym Bacen or BCB, was founded in 1964, as federal agency member of the National Financial System and linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Finance. Before the creation of the Central Bank, the Brazilian monetary authorities were the Currency and Credit Superintendence (SUMOC), the Bank of Brazil (BB) and the National Treasury.
The Central Bank's headquarters are located in Brasília-DF, but there are offices in the state capitals of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Pernambuco, Ceará and Pará.
The Bacen is the official representative of Brazil in international financial organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements.
Operation
Bacen is the main enforcer of the guidelines of the Brazilian National Monetary Council, being also responsible for ensuring the purchasing power of the national currency, with the following objectives:
- Ensure the adequate liquidity of the national economy
- Maintain international reserves at an adequate level
- Stimulate the formation of savings
- Ensure the stability and promote the continuous improvement of the national financial system
- Execute the economic policies
The responsibilities of the Central Bank of Brazil are, among others:
- Issuance of paper currency and coins
- Run services circulating medium
- Receive the reserve requirements from commercial banks
- Perform operations and re-discount loans for liquidity assistance to financial institutions
- Regular execution of clearing checks and other papers
- Authorize, regulate, monitor and intervene in other financial institutions' activities
- Controlling the flow of foreign capital, ensuring the correct balancing of the market
Sisbacen
Established in 1985, Sisbacen is the electronic information system of the Central Bank of Brazil, used to conduct some of its work processes and monitoring the performance of other banks that operate in the country
Via Sisbacen, all foreign exchange transactions are immediately recorded in real time, allowing the Central Bank to act both in monitoring and surveillance market as the orientation of the direction of exchange rate policy.
Since it is mandatory to register all the foreign exchange transactions carried out or into the Brazil, Sisbacen becomes Central Bank's main instrument to monitor and supervise the financial market.
Among the main functions of Sisbacen is the Electronic Declaratory Registration (RDE), which is structured in four modules:
RDE-IED: registration of foreign direct investment in Brazilian companies.
RDE-ROF: registration of both financial transactions with foreign borrowing (loans, leases) and equipment rentals.
RDE-Portfolio: investments are recorded in the external capital market, financial market, investment funds and Depositary Receipts.
CBE: used for the annual statement of assets abroad that belong to residents of Brazil.
The RDE system allows stakeholders to register their operations in the area of foreign capital in the country and Brazilian capital abroad directly into the systems of the Central Bank of Brazil.
Copom
Copom stands for Comitê de Política Monetária (Monetary Policy Committee), which is a body attached to the Central Bank of Brazil. The committee aims to establish guidelines for monetary policies and setting the national basic interest rate (Selic). It also has the expertise to handle the economic liquidity through the monetary policy instruments.
At the end of each calendar quarter (March, June, September and December), the Committee publishes in Portuguese and English, the document "Inflation Report", which analyzes in details the Brazilian economic and financial situation, also presenting its projections for the rate of inflation.
The BCB is not responsible for:
Stock exchange market, investment funds or stock mutual funds
Insurance companies, capitalization companies and open and closed private pension entities
Inscriptions in SPC or Serasa (databases of defaulters)
The locking and unlocking of values of bank accounts
Waiting time in banks' queues
The banks' fees values