BRAZIL Trends and Developments Contributed by: Eduardo Castro, Pedro Nasi and Gabriel Libanori, Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice
More specifically, at the end of 2025, the BCB issued a comprehensive set of regulations designed to: • reformulate capital requirement calculations, which will entail a staggered increase of minimum capital stock and net equity for several regulated entities; • regulate the virtual assets industry; • establish a regulatory framework for BaaS arrange - ments; • strengthen anti-fraud measures and internal control requirements; • create the category of “technology service pro - viders”, which must now be accredited to offer technology services within the national financial system; and • analyse the creation of a specific authorisation regime for remittance collection agents (electronic foreign exchange (eFX) service providers). Historically, each licence type (bank, payment insti - tution, etc) was subject to its own minimum capital stock and net equity regulatory requirements, set on a licence-specific basis. For example, foreign exchange brokers were required to maintain at least BRL500,000 in net equity and fully paid-in capital stock. In light of recent bankruptcy and fraud cases involving Brazilian regulated entities, the Brazilian monetary authorities decided to reassess paid-in capital and net equity requirements using criteria beyond the traditional licence-based approach. In this context, Joint Resolution No 14 of 3 November 2025 introduced new capital and net equity require - ments applicable to financial institutions and other entities authorised to operate by the BCB. Now, capi - tal requirements must be calculated for each institu - tion individually, based on three basic elements: • operational activities carried out by the relevant regulated institution; • fundraising alternatives; and • investment activities. Main recent regulatory trends New capital requirements rules By means of such categories, the BCB has adopted a more tailored approach, which takes into account the specificities of the relevant institution. Also, as a direct
consequence of this new rule, the BCB substantially increased the capital requirements for regulated insti - tutions, aligning the operational reality of institutions in Brazil with current rules. To modulate the effects of such increases, the BCB introduced a staggered approach to the implementa - tion of the new rule, which will take full effect on 1 January 2028. With this individualised methodology, the BCB aims to strengthen the national financial system and the Bra - zilian payment system by reducing undercapitalisation among regulated entities and mitigating bankruptcy risks, as well as to eliminate regulatory asymmetry. New regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers Virtual asset service providers (VASPs; previously called crypto exchanges) have been offering virtual assets to individuals in Brazil for several years with - out being subject to direct local regulatory oversight. The first attempt by Brazilian authorities to regulate the offering of virtual assets was made in 2022, when the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission ( Comissão de Valores Mobiliários CVM) issued an ori - entation memorandum stating that, whenever a vir - tual asset issuance constituted a collective investment contract under the Howey test, it would be subject to the rules applicable to public offerings of securities. In such cases, both the issuer and the offering would require prior registration with the CVM. The CVM emphasised, however, that emerging technologies and new investment opportunities should be encour - aged – not restricted – provided that adequate regula - tion is in place to protect retail investors. On 21 December 2022, Congress enacted Law No 14,478, which established general principles for the provision of “virtual asset services”, excluding virtual assets considered securities, which must comply with specific securities regulation. The BCB was des - ignated as the regulator responsible for overseeing VASPs by Decree Law No 11,563/2023. These enti - ties remained unregulated until 2 February 2026, when the BCB’s new regulatory framework for virtual assets entered into force.
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