Late payments on contracts without an interest rate agreed between the parties will be adjusted by the Selic rate (the economy’s basic interest rate) minus inflation. The National Monetary Council (CMN) has regulated the so-called Legal rate, established by Law 14.905/2024sanctioned at the end of June.
At last week’s meeting, the CMN approved the measure, but the decision was only announced early Thursday evening (29). For each reference month, the Legal Rate will be equivalent to the daily accumulated Selic (since the installment’s due date), minus inflation by the Broad National Consumer Price Index-15 (IPCA-15) of the previous month. If the result is negative, the Legal Rate will be considered equal to zero for the reference month.
The CMN also decided that the Legal Rate will be applied under the simple interest system, which has a lower correction and is applied as a sum of rates, than the compound interest system, which multiplies the amount due. Simple interest will be used both in the accumulation of monthly rates and in the calculation of proportional interest (pro-rata fraction).
In a note, the Central Bank (BC) reported that the simple interest system respects the incidence regime used in judicial convictions by the Public Treasury, as well as in legal cases of amounts paid to public servants and employees, social security and welfare benefits and in various cases of settlement of judgment.
The first Legal Rate, for August, will be released this Friday (30). From September onwards, the indicator will always be released on the first business day of each reference month. The population will be able to calculate the Legal Rate on Citizen Calculatora free tool available on the BC website and in mobile phone app stores and tablets.
