The number of sanctions for irregularities in the granting of payroll increases

There are already 1,200 administrative measures applied to correspondent banks for irregularities in the granting of payroll loans since the self-regulation rules came into effect in January 2020. According to the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) and the Brazilian Association of Banks (ABB) , in March, 22 sanctions were applied, including warnings (6), temporary suspensions (14) and definitive suspensions (2). In April, there were six sanctions.

Self-regulation is a set of rules aimed at transparency, the fight against commercial harassment and the qualification of banking correspondents, which apply to payroll loans, payroll loans and benefit cards. Forms of inappropriate or illicit capturing and processing of consumers’ personal data without their authorization are considered serious faults. Banks that participate in self-regulation are committed to adopting the best practices regarding the protection and processing of their customers’ personal data.

According to Febraban, banks that do not follow the rules can be fined between R$ 45,000 and R$ 1 million. Consumers who feel disrespected can file a complaint through the internal channels of banks, Procons, the Central Bank or the ConsumidorGovBr platform. “In addition to the analysis of complaints, lawsuits and indicators from an independent consultancy are evaluated, which takes into account issues of governance, consumer relationship policy and data management”, says Febraban.

The entity alerts that the consumer can also check if the banking correspondent is certified and is able to offer payroll loans on behalf of the banks. The query is carried out using the professional’s CPF in the database of the Professional Certificates Registration Center.

credit agents

Credit agents are now monitored by the Payroll Self-Regulation this month. The inspection will be similar to that carried out with banking correspondents, with a monthly assessment of the performance of professionals. “Financial institutions will gather records of complaints and lawsuits, and the credit agent will not be able to exceed the rate of 1% on the basis of contracts in the last 12 months”, explains Febraban.

If it exceeds the 1% index, the agent will be considered non-compliant and will accumulate 5 points, with records valid for 12 months. If they add points in 12 months, financial institutions will stop operating with the professional for a period of one year. For the calculations, credit agents with more than 50 contracts produced in a 12-month period and more than 1 valid claim or action in the month are considered.

In cases of recurrence (accumulation of 20 points in a new period of 12 months), the credit agent definitively ceases to operate on behalf of the self-regulated banks. In cases of scam or fraud against the consumer, just one occurrence is enough.

“This is yet another continuous improvement action to promote good practices and prevent problems involving the payroll loan from harming the consumer. We will continue to rigorously monitor the quality of credit agents and bank correspondents, who act on behalf of the banks”, said the president of Febraban, Isaac Sidney.

unwanted offers

Requests to block unwanted offers on payroll loans on the Não me Disturbe platform reached 3,870,586 between January 2, 2020 and April 10, 2023. Requests made to all financial institutions totaled 3,028,356.

Through the platform, consumers can prohibit financial institutions and banking correspondents from proactively contacting them to offer payroll loans.