Durigan demands that the Central Bank make a 'supervisory effort' over fintechs to combat money laundering and their use in illegal betting operations.
Investigations by the Federal Revenue Service, the Council for the Control of Financial Activities (Coaf), and the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets have revealed a pattern that worries the government: fintechs being operated by criminal factions to launder money and process funds from illegal betting. The Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan, spoke on Rádio Gaúcha this Thursday (July 9th) to demand a faster response from the Central Bank to the problem.
According to Valor, Durigan attributed the origin of the problem to the management of former Central Bank president Roberto Campos Neto, whom he accused of creating "anarchy" by authorizing the operation of these companies without establishing adequate supervisory mechanisms. Contacted for comment, Campos Neto did not respond.
"What we've seen is a lot of fintech being used by organized crime to launder money, to receive money from illegal gambling , and the Central Bank didn't have it in its schedule to look at these fintechs," the minister stated.
Minimum capital schedule and company exit strategy
Durigan's statement is part of an ongoing restructuring process in the sector. The Central Bank has established new minimum capital requirements that will be implemented gradually until December 2027; the first effects will be felt as early as 2026. The monetary authority's projection, presented in the Financial Stability Report (REF) of May, indicates that 19% of institutions, or 339 out of 1.751 existing ones, will no longer meet the requirements this year.
The total impact will be greater over time. The Central Bank estimates that 679 companies will be out of compliance by January 2028, when the rule comes into full effect. Institutions that do not comply will have two options: leave the National Financial System (SFN), respecting a transition period to protect clients, or merge with other players to reach the required capital.
The increase in minimum capital requirements is significant. For payment institutions (PIs), the minimum capital required by the previous regulations ranged from R$1 million to R$9 million. With the new rules, this range will now be between R$9,2 million and R$32,8 million. Credit cooperatives, direct credit companies (SCDs), multiple banks, consortium administrators, and distributors (DTVMs) are also among the affected segments. In May, the director of supervision at the Central Bank, Ailton de Aquino, said that the increase in capital mitigates the “moral hazard” in the system.
The siege built up in recent months
The regulator's reaction to the illicit use of fintechs preceded Durigan's statements. Over the past 11 months, the Central Bank has put together a set of measures to close operational loopholes exploited by organized crime.
Among the targets were so-called "pool accounts," opened by intermediary institutions in their own name to concentrate the resources of multiple clients and conceal the movements of third parties. The use of these accounts for illicit purposes had already been investigated by the Federal Police in Operation Hidden Carbon. The Central Bank required financial institutions and fintechs to shut down this model when used by unauthorized companies.
Last September, the regulator approved a rule that obligates authorized institutions to reject transactions with well-founded suspicion of fraud. The same rule established a ceiling of R$ 15 for TED and Pix transactions carried out by unauthorized IPs or those connected to the system via Information Technology Service Providers (ITSPs). In November, the Central Bank regulated the " banking as a service " (BaaS) model, whereby non-banking companies access third-party infrastructure to offer financial services.
Payment institutions (IPs) that participated in Pix without formal authorization until December 31, 2024, had until May 31, 2026, to request accreditation from the Central Bank. Those whose requests were denied had to cease operations. More recently, the rigor was extended to the crypto market: virtual asset service providers (SPSAVs) must comply with the prudential framework of the National Financial System (SFN) starting in 2027.
Given these measures, Durigan ruled out any paralysis due to the election calendar. "We have been taking measures, there have already been changes in the National Monetary Council, the Central Bank has adopted measures, and we will not stop taking measures because of the election period," the minister declared.
What remains open is the pace of this agenda. The minimum capital schedule foresees a two-year transition period; the unanswered question is whether this timeframe is sufficient to prevent the 339 institutions that are out of compliance by 2026 from continuing to operate, even temporarily, outside the supervisory standards that the government itself considers inadequate.
