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Brazil’s AML/CTF Supervisors

01

Council for Financial Activities Control (COAF)

Council for Financial Activities Control (COAF) is the Brazilian financial intelligence unit for anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism. Its primary objective is to regulate financial institutions, enact and enforce sanctions policies, investigate suspicious transactions, and monitor any clients or ac counts that pose a serious risk to Brazil’s financial sector.

The COAF is vested with technical and operational autonomy and is administratively connected to the Brazil Central Bank (BCB).

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Central Bank of Brazil (BCB)

Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) is the competent authority in charge of ensuring that the National FInancial System’s institutions comply with AML/CFT legislation and regulations, in accordance with the National Monetary Council’s guidelines. The BCB aims to prevent the SFN from being used for illegal purposes such as monely laundering or terrorism funding.

How to comply with COAF regulations in Brazil

Brazil

Institutions subject to regulation must comply with the following:

  • Internal controls, which enable the identification of clients, legal entities and ensure that their records are up to date
  • Updated and effective training programs to instruct their employees on how to take appropriate measures required by the law
  • Monitoring of transactions in domestic and foreign currency, instruments and securities, credit instruments, metals, or any commodity that can be converted into money that exceed a limit set by the authority with jurisdiction and under the terms of the instructions given by it
  • Implementation of policies, procedures, and internal controls to meet legal requirements
  • Registration with the regulatory authority and/or COAF, under conditions established by them
  • Comply with the COAF’s requirements on a regular basis, in the manner and under the conditions specified by COAF, with the duty to keep the information given confidential in accordance with the law
Compliance

What are my AML/CTF reporting obligations?

Special attention must be paid to transactions that could be evidence of money laundering and terrorism financing. These must be reported to the COAF in a fully confidential manner.  Each jurisdiction prepares a list of transactions that, due to their characteristics regarding the parties involved, amounts, manner in which they are conducted, instruments used or lack of economic or legal basis could be considered illegal.

The following transactions must be reported to the COAF:

  • Cash transactions received from an insured if equal to or greater than BRL 10,000
  • Any transaction to a non-Brazilian bank account equal to or greater than BRL 100,000
  • Immediate Reporting of Suspicious Transactions defined in Article 35 and 36 of SUSEP Circular no. 612/2020: transactions to be reported within 24 hours of identifying the suspicion
  • Reporting of sanctions matches
  • Serious evidence of any terrorism financing acts as well as persons that intend to commit or participate in or facilitate the commission of terrorist acts