The Central Bank (BC) agreed to carry out an inspection by the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) on the extrajudicial liquidation process of Banco Master, said this Monday (12) the president of the TCU, minister Vital do Rêgo. The minister met this afternoon with the president of the BC, Gabriel Galípolo and said that the monetary authority guaranteed access to the documents that supported the decision.
According to Vital do Rêgo, the main objective of the meeting was to clarify doubts about the TCU’s competence to act on the case and align procedures between the two institutions. According to the minister, It was decided that the inspection is already underway and that the Central Bank documents used in the liquidation process will be available for analysis by the Court of Auditors.
“Today I leave the Central Bank deeply happy with the result of the meeting. We held a meeting with clear objectives, to decimate any type of doubt about our competence”, stated the president of the TCU in a press conference after the meeting.
According to Vital do Rêgo, the Central Bank expressed interest in obtaining the “quality seal” from the TCU and the legal certainty resulting from the inspection. “This process is not just administrative, it is also administrative and criminal”, he added. The BC has not yet commented on the meeting.
Held at the BC headquarters, the meeting took place after strong repercussions of the decision of Minister Jhonatan de Jesus, rapporteur of the process at the TCU, who had authorized, in a monocratic manner, a technical inspection at the Central Bank to investigate the role of the monetary authority in the liquidation of Banco Master. After an appeal presented by the BC, Jhonatan suspended the measureand the case was sent to the Court’s plenary.
In the appeal, the Central Bank argued that an inspection of this nature could not be authorized individually by the rapporteur and that the decision should be passed by the TCU board. The monetary authority also maintained that the initiative could exceed the limits of external control by affecting technical banking supervision decisions.
precautionary measure
With the understanding reached at this Monday’s meeting, Vital do Rêgo stated that the possibility of adopting a precautionary measure against the Central Bank is ruled out.. “The Central Bank understood that the TCU is a collaborator”, he said. According to the minister, the court does not intend to interfere in the liquidation decision, but to analyze the documents to verify the regularity of the process and provide greater legal certainty.
“The act of liquidation is an administrative and regulatory act. It is a technical model that the TCU is accustomed to analyzing”, stated the minister. He reinforced that it is not up to the Court to undo the liquidation of Banco Master and that any questioning of the decision, in this sense, could only occur within the scope of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
Calendar
Vital do Rêgo also informed that, in the coming days, a work calendar between the technical areas of the TCU and the Central Bank will be defined. The inspection is expected to be completed in less than a month. “The Court’s commitment is to end this process as soon as possible,” he declared.
In addition to Vital do Rêgo and Gabriel Galípolo, minister Jhonatan de Jesus and directors of the Central Bank responsible for the areas of Inspection, Regulation, Citizenship and Conduct Supervision, in addition to the institution’s Executive Secretariat, participated in the meeting.
Embargoes
The case reached the TCU following a representation from the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Auditors, which requested clarification on the criteria adopted by the Central Bank to decree the liquidation of Banco Master and whether less drastic alternatives were considered.
In previous responses, the BC reported that the conglomerate led by banker Daniel Vorcaro was facing an acute liquidity crisis, without sufficient resources to honor commitments with account holders and investors, which would have made liquidation inevitable.
Now, it will be up to the TCU plenary to judge the embargoes presented by the Central Bank in the session scheduled for next Wednesday (21), when the formal scope of the inspection and oversight of the monetary authority’s actions in the case must also be defined.
