O Banco Central (BC) may require thatand Pix participants submit a reportprepared by an independent auditor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM)to certify that the institution is following payment arrangement rules.
. It complements the article that says that participating institutions are subject to verification of adherence to standards.
The change is contained in a resolution published on Monday (27), in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU)with immediate effect.
According to the new rules, the report may also be requested by the BC from Pix participants who are notified by the BC for failing to comply with the rules of the arrangement.
In both cases, the audit hired must have technical, administrative and operational capacity compatible with the execution of the planned work.
For the director of Organization of the Financial System and Resolution of the BC, Gilneu Vivan, the presentation of the report can be an alternative to bring more quality and effectiveness to the process of verifying documentary evidence and implementing the determinations of the monetary authority. The assessment is contained in a statement of reasons document that accompanies the text of the resolution.
The new resolution also establishes that the BC may summon representatives of Pix participants to provide clarifications regarding the performance of these institutions, in person or virtually, at the discretion of the municipality.
“These two new forms of action will provide more flexibility and timeliness, in addition to reinforcing the BC’s actions in its role of ensuring that participants are in compliance with Pix’s operating rules”, states the director, in the justification.
Lawyer and professor of financial regulation Aylton Gonçalves notes that the call for representatives of Pix participants is already usually adopted by the BC and that the resolution, in practice, formalizes it.
“What we can expect from this is that the Central Bank will make more use of this direct contact, since Pix has increasingly been the target of the BC’s sanctioning activity”, he says.
Regarding the possibility that institutions will have to present to the BC an independent audit report registered with the CVM, Gonçalves notes that the same solution is also provided for in another recent resolution of the authority, the one that regulates Information Technology Service Providers (PSTI).
New Pix exclusion hypothesis
The resolution published on Monday (27) also creates a new hypothesis for the loss of Pix participant status, if the participant is left without an active liquidator in the Instant Payment System (SPI) for more than 90 calendar days.
Today, there are two types of participation in the SPI. Direct participants, that is, those who settle transactions directly in the system, and indirect participants, whose transactions are settled through a direct participant or a special liquidator.
According to Vivan, in the explanatory memorandum, this new exclusion hypothesis aims to mitigate risks and protect the end user, because it prevents institutions without movement from remaining as participants in the arrangement.
“In this situation, in addition to the risk of using the arrangement for illicit purposes, given that the institution has already gone through the adhesion process and has the entire connection structure to the BC systems, there is a direct impact on users, who are unable to transact, access the Special Return Mechanism (MED) or to other participants”, he says.
For lawyer Thiago Amaral, partner at the firm BTLaw, the change is part of a recent movement by the BC to tighten the rules for participating institutions, “with greater control over who can or cannot remain on Pix”.
He highlights that the city council also made changes to the MED in the same resolution, also with the aim of increasing the rigor of the tool.
Among them, it made improvements regarding the immediate blocking of the receiving account due to the request for amounts within the scope of the MED, in a situation where there is a well-founded suspicion of fraud.
With the new rule, the prediction is that this block must be supplemented whenever there is an inflow of funds into the receiving account, up to the limit of the requested amount or until the infraction notification procedure is completed, whichever comes first.
Unlike the changes related to the Pix regulations, the changes to the MED will come into effect from July 1, 2026, according to the text.
