BC director says dollar account will remain limited, without expansion to families

The Director of Regulation at the Central Bank, Otavio Damaso, said this Wednesday (9) that the opening of dollar accounts in Brazil will continue to be limited to specific sectors, noting that there are no plans to expand this access to families residing in the country.

Damaso said that the legislation passed in 2021 was left with the “stigma” that dollar accounts would become accessible to citizens, which, according to him, is not correct.

“At no time did the Central Bank, we who prepared the draft, think of expanding the scope of dollar accounts in the country, what is being proposed is more or less what exists today,” he said.

According to him, currently, it is possible to have a dollar account in the Brazilian financial system, but in specific cases such as insurance and the oil industry.

“We don’t think about doing anything other than that. […] That doesn’t change. Probably, if demanded, we will allow it for one sector or another”, he said, noting that even without the new law in force, the National Monetary Council recently authorized new uses of dollar accounts by oil companies and regional governments.

According to the BC director, allowing a dollar account for families involves several elements that were not analyzed in the validation of the new exchange rate framework, such as regulations from the Credit Guarantee Fund.

In December 2021, President Jair Bolsonaro sanctioned the law to modernize the country’s foreign exchange regulation.

The rule, whose project was sent by the government to Congress in 2019, simplifies the entry and exit of dollars from the country and eliminates restrictions for exporters to freely use their resources, and may also expand the space for fintechs to operate in the foreign exchange market, among other measures. .