Former regulators push to add CVM to Brazil central bank autonomy bill

The bill, known as PEC 65/2023, will be debated this week in the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee

Aug 18, 2025 6:10 AM

By Brazil Stock Guide – Former heads of Brazil’s securities watchdog CVM are urging lawmakers to include the agency in a proposed constitutional amendment that would grant budgetary and financial independence to the central bank. The report was first published by Valor Econômico on Monday.

Marcelo Trindade, who led the CVM from 2004 to 2007, said the regulator faces a “serious erosion” of resources despite collecting more than 1 billion reais annually through oversight fees. “The law determines that the fee charged has to go to the service that was provided, as it happens with garbage collection or fire prevention fees,” he said. “It is not a tax.” In 2024, the government allocated only 32 million reais to the CVM, well below its revenue base.

Marcelo Barbosa, CVM chair from 2017 to 2022, argued in a recent article that excluding market regulators such as the CVM, Susep and Previc from the amendment would create institutional imbalances. “Any proposal of autonomy that does not also include these agencies will result in disparities whose negative effects will be felt across the market,” he wrote.

The bill, known as PEC 65/2023, will be debated this week in the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee. Senator Plínio Valério, the bill’s rapporteur, has so far resisted expanding its scope beyond the central bank, despite pressure from industry voices.

Carlos Rebello, a former CVM director, stressed that the lack of funding undermines market supervision. “If the industry is at the state of the art, the regulator must also be,” he said, warning that a weak CVM could pose systemic risks, especially in Brazil’s large fund industry.

Nelson Eizirik, who served as director in the late 1980s, cautioned that strengthening only the central bank could leave other regulators sidelined. “When just one institution is equipped, the tendency is for it to swallow the others,” he said.

Some former regulators also pointed to the “twin peaks” model, adopted in the UK and Australia, which separates prudential supervision from conduct oversight. Trindade said the moment is ideal to discuss a broader overhaul of financial regulation. “As it stands, supervision is fragmented,” he noted.