Senator Renan Calheiros targets pension fund losses in Brazil's Banco Master

Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB‑AL) is pursuing two complementary initiatives to address losses suffered by Brazilian pension funds that invested in the now‑liquidated Banco Master. In the Senate, he has introduced a bill that would make the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC) a shareholder of the FGC and require it to cover failed Master paper investments, noting that 18 pension funds have lost roughly R$ 2 billion, with the three largest affected being RioPrevidência, Amapá Previdência and the Maceió municipal fund. Calheiros argues that “the norms issued by the CMN are infra‑legal and cannot have hierarchy over laws duly deliberated by Congress.”

Separately, Calheiros filed a popular action in the Federal Court against the municipality of Maceió, its former mayor and directors of the municipal pension institute (Iprev), seeking to void two investments totalling about R$ 117 million in Master’s Letras Financeiras and to recover the losses. The petition claims the approvals lacked any risk‑analysis, credit rating or due‑diligence, and that the instruments were ten‑year private securities without FGC guarantees.