Campos Neto starts talks with the market in search of a new BC director

The president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, started talks with financial market agents in search of a new name for the position of director of monetary policy. The mandate of the current holder, Bruno Serra Fernandes, ends on February 28.

One of the names aired is that of economist Sandro Mazerino Sobral, head of markets and trading at Santander Brasil. The survey was published by Valor Econômico and confirmed by Sheet.

According to financial market sources, Campos Neto met with Sobral about a month ago and a new conversation was scheduled after the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government was assembled, which took office last Sunday (1st).

“No one has been invited so far”, says the BC through its press office.

The decision is not up to Campos Neto alone. Since the approval of the autonomy law of the autarchy, in force from February 2021, the suggestion of the names indicated for the BC must be made by the President of the Republic and undergo approval by the Senate.

Campos Neto says he had a conversation with the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT), so that the process continues to be conducted “in a smooth and consensual way”. On December 30, 2022, he met for the first time with President Lula to discuss “institutional matters”, as per the agenda of the head of the autarchy.

“Even in the recent past, I discussed all the names with the present directors of the house and some were even suggested by other directors. So, it is a process in which everyone discusses”, stated the president of BC in the disclosure of the quarterly report of inflation in December.

“We have a part of the directors who are much more technical and connected to areas that need to have a greater continuity of management. I hope that all this is taken into account”, he added. One of these more technical areas is the Inspection board, whose head, Paulo Souza, also has a mandate until February 28th.

In the final stretch of his tenure, which began in 2019, Serra requested a transfer to São Paulo as of February 2. The change of headquarters was published in the DOU (Official Gazette) last Tuesday (3).

Although his mandate is scheduled to end on the 28th of next month, the director of monetary policy may remain in the post until his replacement takes over after going through a sabbath in the Senate. Serra could be reappointed for another four years at BC, but should return to the financial market.

Campos Neto, who has two more years in charge of the BC, has already anticipated that he would not accept being kept in the presidency of the autarchy after 2024, when his first term ends.

“I think reappointment is not healthy, it creates a weakness in the middle of the term because there will be a president of the Central Bank who will be interested in being reappointed and is exposed, at that moment, to the will of the Executive”, he said at an event promoted In August.

In office since 2019, Campos Neto says he was against the possibility of reappointment when the BC autonomy law was designed. “If it had depended only on me, there would have been no reappointment in the autonomy law”, he highlighted.

The law determines fixed terms of four years for the president and directors of the autarchy, which can be renewed only once and do not coincide with that of the President of the Republic.