To reduce fraud, Brazilian banks will share information

The Brazilian Central Bank and National Monetary Council on Tuesday approved new norms establishing information-sharing requirements for banks and brokerage firms in an effort to better spot fraud and money laundering. Financial institutions will have until November 1 to prepare themselves for compliance with the new rules.

Whenever a case of fraud is identified, financial institutions will have to share with other players the name of the fraudsters and details on the evidence of how they flagged suspicious transactions.

Institutions will be responsible for ensuring customers’ right to banking data privacy — as well as for how information made available in a shared database will be used. They will have to get customers’ explicit consent for their information to be treated and shared as part of the anti-fraud effort. 

Research overseen by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank, has found at least 15 information-sharing transnational projects around the world. And while most countries don’t let banks share information, recent efforts have yielded substantial success in identifying crime.

According to Brazilian banks, losses through scams amounted to an estimated BRL 2.5 billion (USD 503 million) last year. Around BRL 1.8 billion, or over 70 percent of the total amount, related to the use of the instant payment system PIX. The real numbers may be bigger, as clients do not fully report all thescams they suffer. 

Disclosed in February by the financial agency Serasa, the financial fraud survey showed that 40 percent of Brazilians have already been victims of financial scams, with credit and debit card fraud being the most common, appearing in 39 percent of responses. 

Some scammers contact victims using telemarketers, pretending to be from a financial institution. During the conversation, the criminals ask for the victim’s passwords, personal data, and financial transactions.

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