On December 11, the Deputies passed in plenary session the Executive Measure transferring the Financial Activities Control Council, (Coaf, for its acronym in Portuguese) from the Ministry of Economy to the Central Bank. The bill is ready to be debated in the Senate Plenary.

The government had sought to change the name of the of the Council from Coaf to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), but the Deputies restored the name Coaf in the version approved. In addition, they backed a motion that removed the responsibility for producing information to support the fight against terrorism financing from the body.

Coaf is responsible for producing information to prevent and combat money laundering, applying administrative sanctions to entities in the financial system when they fail to submit requested data. The text also includes a provision to allow for a prison sentence of 1 to 4 years for anyone revealing information they obtained from Coaf to other parties, such as the media, without the requisite legal or judicial authorization.

The Council will be comprised of officials from various different economic areas, such as the Federal Revenue Service and the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, and they will all be elected and appointed by the President of the Central Bank.