Brazil's Central Bank reports R$6.2 bn of forgotten money remains

The Banco Central (BC) said that 6.24 billion reais of unclaimed funds were still pending in May, down from more than 10 billion the previous months. The decline follows a transfer of 5.7 billion reais to the Fundo Garantidor de Operações (FGO), which is being used to back the Desenrola Brazil debt‑renegotiation program. The BC estimates that 4.44 billion reais belong to about 24.08 million individuals and 1.8 billion reais to roughly 2.27 million companies. Since the Sistema de Valores a Receber (SVR) was created, 15.47 billion reais have already been returned to rightful owners.

The remaining money is held mainly by banks (2.91 billion), followed by consórcio administrators (2.25 billion), credit cooperatives (586.7 million), payment institutions (311.5 million), financial companies (106.3 million), broker‑dealers (71 million) and other entities (8.8 million). Most claimants hold very small amounts – 67.6 % have up to R$10, 19.5 % between R$10.01‑R$100, 10.4 % between R$100.01‑R$1,000 and 2.46 % above R$1,000.

People can check for unclaimed balances for free through the SVR website by entering their CPF or CNPJ and, for individuals, a Pix key linked to their CPF. The system also offers an automatic‑refund option for individuals who use a CPF‑based Pix key. Companies cannot use the automatic feature. The transfer of resources to the FGO is under review by the Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU) for possible use of funds outside the public budget.