This Tuesday (5), the Chamber of Deputies approved Bill 2685/22, which establishes limits on credit card interest and creates the Desenrola Brasil personal debt renegotiation program. Now, the text authored by deputy Elmar Nascimento (União-BA) goes to the Senate for a vote.
The rapporteur, federal deputy Alencar Santana (PT-SP), incorporated Provisional Measure 1176/23 into the PL, which creates the Desenrola Brasil Program in order to encourage the renegotiation of debts of up to R$5,000. Originally, the text only provided for limits on revolving interest, which is charged when customers do not pay the full amount of their credit card bill.
The program intends to cover those who receive up to two minimum wages monthly (R$ 2,640.00) or who are registered with the federal government’s CadÚnico. The customer must also have been included in defaulter records by December 31, 2022, with a record that must be active on June 28, 2023.
Debts with banking institutions may be included in this negotiation, as well as those related to public service providers, such as water, electricity and telephone, as well as pending issues with retail and even personal loans.
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To ensure payment of the amount renegotiated through the program, the Executive will use resources from the Operations Guarantee Fund (FGO-Pronampe), covering amounts not paid by the debtor after renegotiation, limited to R$5,000 per person, adjusted according to the Selic rate.
Limits on credit card interest
According to the approved text, financial institutions must present to the National Monetary Council (CMN) a proposal for self-regulation of interest rates and financial charges charged on revolving credit and in installments of the outstanding balance of credit card invoices.
If the board does not approve these limits within 90 days of enactment of the bill, the interest and charges charged may not exceed, in any case, the original amount of the debt.
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“So that Parliament is not accused of intervening in the economy, we are giving the sector that issues credit cards, banks and other financial institutions a period of 90 days to present a proposal to the National Monetary Council”, said Alencar Santana .
“The card’s average annual revolving interest is 440%. This is absurd, the person ends up messing around, without paying their commitment, resulting in an abusive profit, without any parameters in the world”, he added. The project uses as an example the model established in England, which does not exceed the equivalent of 100% of the original debt amount.
The author of the project, Elmar Nascimento, highlighted that the text was negotiated with banks, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance. “Everything was negotiated. It is a project that will allow more than 70 million Brazilians to be removed from default and will impose self-regulation on banks, so that there is a gradual drop in the interest rate on revolving credit cards”, he said.
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Editing: Vivian Virissimo
