The president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, said this Wednesday (April 8, 2026) that it is difficult to identify irregularities in the conduct of banking supervisors at the monetary authority. The statement was given during the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) into Organized Crime to deal with Banco Master.
Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza e Belline Santanafrom the Central Bank, are suspected of facilitating Master’s interests in the monetary authority. The CGU (General Comptroller of the Union) also carries out administrative disciplinary proceedings. Paulo Sérgio Souza was Director of Inspection at the Central Bank from 2017 to 2023, during the (MDB) and (PL) governments, being nominated by the 2 former presidents for the position.
Galípolo declared that the 2 employees have 28 years of careers at the Central Bank. He said that Paulo, who was a director, had a lot of respect in the institution and in the market. “When he left the board, he received a series of proposals to eventually work in the market”said the president of the BC.
He indicated that it is up to the Court to analyze whether there were undue advantages and whether they influenced the attitudes of supervisors. Galípolo stated that he suggested rotating bank supervisors at the BC to avoid fraud, because each public employee may have disagreements that are good for market supervision.
“A supervisor should have a limit on the amount of time he or she stays as a supervisor at that institution so that a new person can enter”he said. For him, it is “very difficult” define that there is irregularity of action in these cases.
Audits
The BC president said that, in November 2024, Banco Master received an increase in its rating rating (a credit risk classification in which the higher the score, the lower the risk) by . It also stated that 4 external and independent audits. They are: PwC, KPMG, EY and Crowe. Roberto Campos Neto’s management at the Central Bank also requested the analysis of assets by 3 law firms.
He declared that the “framework” from Master showed rating evolution, external audits and law firms saying that “everything is OK”. According to the BC president, if public employees were removed before operations began, it would be considered a “political attitude, of persecution against that type of institution”.
The BC president stated that a separate group of supervisors was set up at the monetary authority to carry out the necessary analyses.
Galípolo was invited to explain the role of the Central Bank in the Master case, which could culminate in a possible agreement that has repercussions on the Three Powers. He is heard as a witness.
Master’s founder, Daniel Vorcaro, . He is being investigated for corruption, money laundering and hacking of computer devices.
The CPI rapporteur is the senator (MDB-SE).
Galípolo met at Palácio do Planalto on December 4, 2024 with Vorcaro, the president (PT) and other authorities. At the time, he talked about meeting the then president of the Central Bank,
BRB
The Central Bank discovered Master’s bad credits during negotiations for the purchase of Master in 2025 by BRB (Bando de Brasília), a state-owned company in the Federal District. BRB is now in an alarming financial situation afterwards.
In February this year, the state-owned company delivered a measure to restore its balance sheet and reinforce liquidity, but is at risk of being liquidated by the Central Bank, as well as the Master Bank. BRB did not release last year’s financial statement, which increased uncertainty regarding the bank’s future.
The Central Bank had “certainty” the lack of collateral in the credit portfolio in . The competent authorities –Federal Public Ministry and Federal Police– were . The 1st phase of the Compliance Zero operation was .
Paulo Souza is the target of PF investigations for providing privileged information to Daniel Vorcaro. Belline and Souza worked at Desup (Department of Banking Supervision) and were removed from their positions this year.
The investigations take on two fronts:
- one from the CGU (General Comptroller of the Union), with possible administrative sanctions;
- one from the Federal Police, from a criminal point of view.
Galípolo has already said that the monetary authority has a feeling of “consternation” after the Master case. At the time, he argued that ethics is a value “very expensive” to the institution’s civil servants and asked “help” for the approval of the PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) in Congress, which expands the financial autonomy of the Central Bank in relation to the federal government.
According to Galípolo, the BC’s Director of Inspection, Ailton Aquino, identified that Master was selling new portfolios because of liquidity problems, even with the difficulties in raising new funds.
An analysis group began work in February and identified, in March, that the portfolios were unbacked. The documents obtained were, according to Galípolo, insufficient to establish fraud, but the BC sought more satisfactory answers about the origin of the credits.
The Central Bank had difficulty finding evidence and advanced its investigations during the process of analyzing Master’s purchase by BRB.
The BC argues that the legal rite of the process was respected so that there were no subsequent questions. The BC gave “chances” for clarification, and the investigation time was allocated to substantiate the process and warnings to the competent authorities.
MASTER CASE
The was liquidated by the Central Bank in November 2025. The founder of the financial institution, Daniel Vorcaro, signed a confidentiality agreement on March 19, 2026 with the PF (Federal Police) and the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) that. The document exposes risks facing several public authorities in Brasília. This agreement was signed almost 12 months after the announcement of the purchase by BRB (Banco de Brasília), which followed the operation.
The Master was responsible for the record break in the FGC (Credit Guarantee Fund), of , even though it only had . It also caused almost a loss in Social Security funds.
