On October 7, the Central Bank (CB) announced the submission to Congress of a bill to modernize the foreign exchange market. The idea is to establish a new, modern, concise and legally-secure legal framework for Brazilian foreign exchange and capital markets abroad. However, the initiative has not yet been assigned to any committee.

The bill, which was introduced to the Chamber of Deputies, aims to improve the country’s business environment ensuring “simplification and agility” for all those involved in international operations. The bill is structured upon three pillars: consolidation, modernization and simplification. 

The text consolidates over 40 legal provisions issued since 1920 into a single measure. This is an attempt to eliminate the excessive bureaucracy hampering the acquisition of foreign exchange for import and export purposes, and to remove restrictions on exporters regarding how they use the income in their foreign accounts. It also aims to enhance the integration of these companies into global chains.

On the other hand, the bill promotes the adoption of new business models aimed at increasing efficiency and promoting competition, transparency and financial inclusion, making the registration of foreign credit operations for low-value operations more flexible, for example. 

The Executive branch believes that the measure will principally benefit companies with foreign trading operations, as one of the main objectives of this initiative is to help Brazilian companies to achieve better international market penetration.