Circular Letter No. 3.329

CIRCULAR LETTER No. 003329 ------------------------ Establishes procedures for the withdrawal from circulation of national banknotes and coins identified as counterfeit or of doubtful legitimacy, by banking financial institutions, and their sending to the Central Bank of Brazil. The Central Bank of Brazil, in the exercise of the attributions conferred upon it by art. 10, item II, of Law No. 4.595, of 31.12.64, establishes procedures to be observed by financial institutions for the withdrawal from circulation, recording and forwarding of national banknotes and coins identified as counterfeit or of doubtful legitimacy to this Autarchy. 2. Banking financial institutions, when they identify national banknotes and coins as counterfeit or of doubtful legitimacy, must, in the case of the specimens not having been requested from them by police or judicial authority: I - retain such banknotes and coins; II - issue a retention receipt, when the identification occurs at the time of presentation, and deliver it to the presenter; and III - send the referred banknotes and coins to the Central Bank of Brazil (Department of Currency in Circulation, respecting jurisdiction) for examination. 3. The retention receipt must contain the presenter's data (name, CPF, or CNPJ in the case of a legal entity, identity document, address and telephone) and the information relating to the retained currency (date of retention, denomination, quantity and, in the case of banknotes, alphanumeric identification of the serial number). 4. The sending of banknotes and coins to the Central Bank will be accompanied by the document "Forwarding Receipt", in accordance with the model annexed to Circular Letter 3.265, of 13 February 2007. 5. To send information about the retention of these banknotes and coins to the Central Bank, financial institutions will use a specific message from the Brazilian Payment System Message Catalog, observing that each sending must be restricted to a single retention event and be linked to a single CPF or CNPJ. 6. To provide more security to the forwarding of banknotes to the Central Bank, financial institutions must write the sending number on each specimen and may stamp it with the expression -SUSPECTED OF COUNTERFEITING-, in accordance with the stamp model and delimited areas of the banknote defined in the annex to this Circular Letter. 7. Financial institutions must inform the Central Bank of the eventual existence of a link with a police inquiry and/or judicial proceeding, in addition to the respective numbers of these documents, both in relation to counterfeit banknotes and coins that are being forwarded and to others previously sent. 8. Counterfeit banknotes and coins collected by the Central Bank of Brazil will be destroyed after the preservation period defined by the Department of Currency in Circulation, unless they are linked to a police inquiry or judicial proceeding formally communicated. 9. After receiving the result of the Central Bank's
examination, the financial institution will inform the presenter thereof, effecting reimbursement of the amount corresponding to the specimens declared legitimate. 10. Circular Letter No. 2.814, of 28.08.98, is revoked. Rio de Janeiro, 15 July 2008. DEPARTMENT OF CURRENCY IN CIRCULATION João Sidney de Figueiredo Filho Head Note: The annexes cited in paragraphs 4 and 6 of this Circular Letter will be available at the electronic address http://www.bcb.gov.br, at the link "Legislation and norms/Norms of the CMN and BC/Norms with annexes".