Americanas case shows that CVM and BC controls are out of date, says president of Cerc

The multibillion-dollar accounting hole that led Americanas to judicial recovery shows that the control mechanisms of regulators such as the Central Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) are out of date, said the president of the Cerc receivables register, Fernando Fontes.

According to him, for at least six years, issues involving the anticipation by banks to retailers of resources for payment of suppliers, the so-called “drawn risk”, are a current issue in the market. These operations were precisely where Americanas’ problems occurred.

Fontes stated that both BC and CVM have addressed the issue in regulation, but their monitoring instruments have not been able to detect the problem in Americanas preventively.

“The controls are out of date,” he told Reuters. “And the mechanisms used by independent audits, too.”

For years, the BC has been working on the framework to gradually make all the most used receivables listed in registers and, thus, provide more transparency to the market that moves trillions of reais every year in Brazil. One of the objectives is to prevent holders of receivables from using the same paper to advance funds more than once.

Currently, in addition to Cerc, there are three other receivables registrars in the market: Nuclea (formerly CIP), B3 and the Credit Rights Registration Center (CRDC).

In one of the most important stages, the system involved credit card receivables, in June 2021. But due to problems, such as interoperability between registers, the BC was led to make adjustments to the regulation, last November.

With that, a next step on the agenda, which would require the gradual electronic registration of duplicates, was postponed.

Although regulated three years ago, the electronic or book-entry duplicate has not yet formally entered into force. The expectation of professionals in this market is that the BC announces an implementation agenda for this modality next month, which could take up to two years to be fully operational.

At the same time, the CVM recently edited new rules that require credit rights investment funds (FIDCs) to register their receivables with central depositaries as of next April.

For Fontes, with electronic duplicates, information on operations will be more organized and visible to the regulator, also making it easier for suppliers and financial institutions to cross information, which will allow, for example, to identify operations such as the risk drawn.

It was when recording these operations in its financial statements that Americanas announced two weeks ago that it had detected “accounting inconsistencies” over the last few years of at least R$ 20 billion.

According to the Cerc executive, smaller banks are already using data on electronic bills —whose registration is still not mandatory— to improve their internal credit risk prevention systems.

In a well-known case in the market, last year some managed to avoid losses with companies that went into judicial reorganization or bankruptcy, such as Mixtel Distribuidora from Paraná.

Fontes avoided commenting on specific cases, but said that after recent episodes, the expectation is that the demand for this service will grow even before the regulatory requirement, expected to start taking effect in phases in 2024.

When contacted, BC and CVM did not immediately comment on the matter.