Central Bank President Gabriel Galipolo said on Tuesday that people who bet on virtual games have significantly higher credit risk. He made the statement during Senate Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (CPI) on virtual bets, better known to Bets. “The subsequent survey conducted by the Central Bank concluded that the people who make the bet have a significantly higher credit risk than people who do not make the bet, which remains significant controlled by several factors, such as income range and risk of underlying credit operation.”
At the beginning of the presentation, Galipolo said that it is up to the BC to evaluate procedures and controls of financial institutions and payment institutions regarding the procedures of knowing their client and know their business partner, among others. “It is already at the scope of supervision work, within the so -called Supervisory Action Plan (PAS),” he said, adding that these procedures should consider various types of suspicious transaction indications and not just those involving unauthorized Bets. “This is just an item, among many others, which we analyze in our supervision work, which focuses on authorized institutions and not in the transactions of its customers,” he explained.
According to the president of the BC, when indications of regularities are found, whose competence is from another body, such as the Ministry of Finance in the case of transactions with legal bets, these irregularities must be communicated to another “legitimate and protected form” body. “The Mission of the Central Bank is monetary stability and financial stability. As part of this competence, the Central Bank follows payment data, seeking to have a more timely sensitivity of macroeconomic indicators, such as economic activity,” he said.
Galipolo reported that, in preparatory studies for a Copom meeting, he caught the attention of the collegiate that part of the family income was neither for consumption nor for savings. “Some market participants had already warned us that financial flow for betting sites were becoming significant, with potential impact on economic activity,” he said.
The BC president commented that some institutions have produced specific reports on the subject, but that estimates on market size are very varied. “It is important for the BC to evaluate potential impacts on financial stability and the transmission of monetary policy. The role of the Central Bank in this context was to collaborate in this debate based on its interest in assessing the impact of this market on economic activity,” he said.
Galipolo recalled that when the BC study was conducted in August 2024, the sector regulation was not completely applied, with companies often not yet constituted in the country, but received resources through intermediaries not subject to regulation. “Thus, it was not trivial to calculate the financial movement for the sector. We then identified the pattern of transactions of these types of payments and, from there were considered these transactions with these standards in payment facilitators,” he said.
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He also commented that the Central Bank has collaborated with the Ministry of Finance’s Betting Secretariat in regulating the sector, clarifying aspects of the operation of the financial system and the payment arrangements that can assist in monitoring Belas Markets. “In addition, we are collaborating with control bodies in their term -related audits.”
Galipolo stressed the Senators the legal duty of the Central Bank to maintain bank secrecy and protection of personal data. “The Central Bank will keep the zeal for the data obtained by the supervision or generated in the operation of its infrastructures.”
He emphasized that it is BC’s duty to preserve PIX as a public digital infrastructure and the privacy of financial information processed in its scope to ensure the impossibility of identifying the user observed the legal exceptions. “Pix is an essential public digital infrastructure for the functioning of the national economy. Implemented in financial inclusion, the development of new business models and the competition of the National Financial System. The maintenance of the PIX population confidence, especially in the protection of its data, is essential for the proper functioning of the economy,” he said.
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Worse evaluation
The president of the Central Bank also reported that studies of the institution reveal that gamblers often have worse credit rating than other borrowers. He emphasized that the BC always intends to study and understand how the demand is behaving and where income is flowing, so that its impacts can be understood. “And, yes, the studies already reveal that gamblers often have a worse credit assessment, and this has come into what we call the credit score, the credit analysis that banks usually do when granting credit,” he said.
Galipolo reported that banks already consider this type of habit to be able to make a credit analysis and check for a higher risk. He also said that research is still being done to gather more data and there is understanding and how behavior is migrating, if it is reducing etc.
According to a special BC study “Technical Analysis on the online betting market in Brazil and the profile of gamblers”, published last year, low -income families are the most impaired by the activity of sports bets. “It is reasonable to assume that the commercial appeal of enrichment through bets is more attractive to those who are in a situation of financial vulnerability,” he said, adding that the BC is aware of the theme and needs more data and time to further evaluate their implications for the economy, financial stability and financial welfare of the population.
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Investigations
The president of the Central Bank repeated that the institution began to investigate the Bets segment because there was a discharge of families’ income, which was not for consumption or savings. “Our gateway was the macroeconomic side. We were seeing the income growing, families’ income has grown a lot in the last two years, a growth in both speed and level, historically higher there we realized that there was a certain leakage of this income: we did not find this income or savings,” he explained.
The warning of the increase in games by the BC was, therefore, to the economic issue, according to Galipolo. “We did a study even before the activity was regulated, because we were realizing that this could have some kind of impact.”
From a normative point of view, he emphasized that the institution is always open to participate and exchange information. Especially because according to him, the Central Bank is autonomous but not isolated. “The Central Bank produces information and this information has to be available to the Senate, to the House of Representatives, to the general population. So, that’s why we always try to give so much transparency.”
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The BC president explained that the matter is not specific to the BC. “I think there was a series of market transformations. These transformations that generated new active services and that the Central Bank has to provide to the population.”