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Brazil’s Central Bank plans measures to curb risks from higher-cost lending products that have increasingly strained household budgets. The aim, the monetary authority said, is to make credit growth more sustainable and strengthen the resilience of the financial system. The announcement came in a statement following a meeting of the Central Bank’s Financial Stability Committee (Comef) on Tuesday (25) and Wednesday (26). The regulator did not specify which measures are under consideration, though one natural option would be to raise capital requirements for banks offering more expensive or riskier forms of credit. Minutes of the meeting, with further details, are due next Wednesday. Analysis: Galípolo says credit, not rates, drove debt buildup Financial firms overdid lending, owe ‘mea culpa,’ Febraban says The move comes after a prolonged period of high interest rates and amid rising delinquency among households and companies. The share of household income committed to debt payments is also at elevated levels. It also follows a series of warnings from Central Bank Chair Gabriel Galípolo about the volume of credit being extended in Brazil, particularly through credit cards and unsecured lending. “You can’t celebrate news that credit has grown and then complain that indebtedness has grown,” Galípolo said Monday (24) at Febraban Tech, a banking technology event in São Paulo. Credit cards Galípolo has previously voiced concern about the peculiarities of Brazil’s credit-card system, a market that has expanded sharply in recent years, carries high interest rates and is structured in a way that makes it relatively insensitive to changes in the Selic policy rate. The Central Bank has signaled that it is open to discussing ways to address some of those features, including Brazil’s 30-day settlement period, which is much longer than in other countries. One option under consideration, Valor has learned, would be to require card issuers to hold more capital when extending costly credit to borrowers who are already heavily indebted. Comef said the current environment “characterized by a restrictive policy rate and rising levels of delinquency, income commitment and household indebtedness, as well as corporate indebtedness, requires additional caution and diligence in lending, both in terms of loan quality and risk appetite.” Even so, the committee said it considers the financial system prepared “to withstand the materialization of credit risk,” meaning financial institutions have adequate loan-loss provisions as well as sufficient liquidity and capital. Banks “generally maintain capital and liquidity voluntarily at levels above prudential requirements,” the Central Bank said. Capital buffer At this week’s meeting, Comef kept Brazil’s Countercyclical Capital Buffer, known locally as ACCPBrasil, at 0%. The buffer requires banks to set aside additional capital during periods of credit expansion. The Central Bank calibrates the tool based on cyclical systemic risks stemming from credit and asset prices. In the middle of last year, the committee said it was studying whether to introduce a positive buffer that would apply “during periods without a significant buildup of financial risks,” creating capital that could later be released and giving macroprudential policy more room to respond. That has yet to happen. Fast loan growth What has continued this year is rapid lending growth despite elevated delinquency rates. Brazil’s stock of bank loans and financing rose 9.7% in the 12 months through June, to about R$7.4 trillion. Some categories, such as payroll-deductible loans, carry relatively low risk. But riskier, unsecured products, including credit cards, have been growing faster than the market average. Credit restrictions expected to hold or increase in Q3, survey shows During the second-quarter earnings season, Brazil’s largest banks said they were prioritizing safer lending products, particularly in consumer credit. Central Bank figures released so far, however, have yet to show that shift. The monetary authority is due to publish July data on Friday. The combination of rapid credit growth and high delinquency rates has raised concern among analysts. In a report, UBS BB outlined several steps the Central Bank could take to discourage further expansion. Policy options One option, UBS BB analysts said, would be to raise bank reserve requirements, which are used to drain liquidity from the financial system. The Central Bank did that in 2010, when credit was expanding at an annual rate of 17% in the aftermath of measures adopted to counter the global financial crisis. “Reserve requirements for Brazilian banks are currently close to a historical low [and have been relatively stable since Covid],” the analysts said. A second option would be for the regulator to raise risk weights for certain types of loans, as it did in 2011, when auto lending was growing by nearly 20% and payroll-deductible credit by 25%. A third alternative would be to raise the Tax on Financial Transactions (IOF), another step taken that year. UBS BB said a fourth option would be to increase the countercyclical capital buffer. Faster reporting Alongside those signals, the Central Bank said Wednesday that it has begun making more up-to-date information on credit operations available while also requiring banks to submit data more promptly. The change implements a September 2024 resolution requiring daily reporting on new loans, loan sales and acquisitions, portability, installment payments and loan repayments. “Information that could previously take up to 45 days to become available for consultation will now be updated within seven business days,” the Central Bank said. The regulator said the change will allow developments involving credit operations to appear more quickly in credit-bureau inquiries, “enabling individuals and companies to benefit from assessments based on more current information about their credit situation.” The data are supplied by financial institutions themselves. Delays in updating the system drew criticism when the Americanas crisis erupted, after the retailer was found to have concealed more than R$20 billion in financial debt from the market.