Normative Instruction BCB No. 353 — Procedure for Credit Cooperatives Regarding the Use of Bank Reserve Accounts Prior to Participation in the Agricultural Activity Guarantee Program

NORMATIVE INSTRUCTION BCB NO. 353, OF FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Provides on the procedure to be observed by a credit cooperative prior to the start of its activity in the Agricultural Activity Guarantee Program, regarding the use of Bank Reserve accounts.

The Head of the Department of Regulation, Supervision and Control of Rural Credit and Proagro Operations (Derop), using the powers granted to him by Art. 23, item I, letter “a”, of the Internal Regulations of the Central Bank of Brazil, annexed to Ordinance No. 84,287, of February 27, 2015, and in view of the provisions of Art. 66-A of Law No. 8,171, of January 17, 1991, and of letter “m” of item 1 of Section 1 (General Provisions), of items 19 and 21 of Section 2 (Classification), of items 11 and 12 of Section 3 (Additional) and of items 18, 19, 20, 21 and 23 of Section 7 (Expenses), all of Chapter 12 (Proagro) of the Rural Credit Manual (MCR),

R E S O L V E :

Art. 1. The credit cooperative, prior to the start of its activity in the Agricultural Activity Guarantee Program (Proagro), must present to the Central Bank of Brazil a convention agreement signed with another financial institution to use the Bank Reserve account.

Art. 2. This Normative Instruction BCB enters into force on March 1, 2023.

Claudio Filgueiras Pacheco Moreira

NOTE

As provided by MCR 12-1-2, agents of the Agricultural Activity Guarantee Program (Proagro) are financial institutions that have rural credit operations subject to classification in the program. The aforementioned device covers credit cooperatives that finance agricultural operating expense operations.

2. Within the scope of the Proagro regulation, there are several requirements that require the use of Bank Reserve accounts by program agents, including credit cooperatives.

3. This Normative Instruction BCB (IN BCB) makes it clear to credit cooperatives that, prior to the start of their activities in Proagro, the presentation of a convention agreement with another financial institution, regarding access to a Bank Reserve account, will be required.

4. Decree No. 10,411, of June 30, 2020, regulated the carrying out of a regulatory impact analysis (RIA) as a prerequisite for the issuance of a normative act. However, in its Article 4, the aforementioned decree establishes the hypotheses for exemption from carrying out an RIA.

5. This IN BCB only clarifies and explains a procedure inherent to the administration of Proagro, necessary for compliance with provisions provided in the program's regulation, without any relevant impacts for compliance with obligations already imposed on financial institutions. Therefore, the present measure falls under the hypothesis of exemption from RIA as it is considered a low-impact normative, in the form of item III of Art. 4 of Decree No. 10,411, of June 30, 2020.

Claudio Filgueiras Pacheco Moreira

Head of Derop