Circular 612 repeal Circular 445

The Superintendency of Private Insurance - SUSEP published this Wednesday (2) in the Federal Official Gazette (DOU) the SUSEP Circular No. 612, which provides for policies and procedures aimed at combating money laundering crimes and preventing terrorism.

The Circular covers insurance and capitalization companies, local and admitted reinsurers, open-ended supplementary pension entities, cooperative corporations authorized to operate by SUSEP, reinsurance brokerage firms, brokerage firms, and insurance, capitalization and open supplementary pension brokers.

SUSEP Circular No. 612 repealed SUSEP Circular No. 445, being a more comprehensive circular, including even more politically exposed people, such as the presidents and national treasurers, or equivalent, of political parties.

Although the internal control procedures are similar (see article 6 of Circular 445, which is equivalent to article 5 of Circular 612), SUSEP Circular No. 612 provides defined guidelines and specific corporate obligations, providing that the above-mentioned companies must:

• implement a policy to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing;
• have a governance structure aimed at ensuring compliance with the above policy and with internal procedures and controls for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing;
• carry out an internal assessment with the objective of identifying, understanding and measuring the risk of using its products and services in the practice of money laundering and terrorist financing;
• adopt identification procedures that include, at a minimum, your clients, beneficiaries, third parties and final beneficiaries;
• adopt procedures to qualify their clients through the collection, verification and validation of information, compatible with the customer's risk profile and the nature of the business relationship;
• classify your clients into the risk categories defined in the internal risk assessment, based on the information obtained from the customer qualification procedures;
• register information prior to the beginning of the business relationship, for the purpose of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing;
• keep organized and available to SUSEP the records relating to all transactions with clients, beneficiaries, third parties and other related parties, including those relating to all payments made, with identification of the final beneficiary;
• carry out, for cases of lower risk, at least once a year, the review of the entire customer registration base considering all the products sold regardless of the amount of the prize, contribution or contribution, to identify people who may have become politically exposed;
• implement procedures for the analysis of proposals or operations, individually or together, with the objective of characterizing them or not as atypical or suspected of money laundering and terrorist financing;
• report to SUSEP, annually, by the last business day of March, in the form of a negative communication, that transactions or proposed transactions that could be reported did not occur in the previous calendar year;
• implement procedures aimed at getting to know your employees, partners, and third-party service providers, including identification and qualification procedures;
• be responsible for the accuracy and appropriateness of the records and documents, with the exception of intent and bad faith on the part of individuals and the inaccuracy of the registration data in the databases and/or other sources of information, which are not in the possession of the companies;
• classify the activities carried out by its employees, and third-party service providers in the risk categories defined in the internal risk assessment;
• comply, immediately and without prior notice, with the resolutions of the CSNU or the appointments of its sanctions committees that determine the unavailability of assets, of any amounts, directly or indirectly owned by natural persons, legal entities, or entities, pursuant to Law No. 13,810 of March 8, 2019, without prejudice to the duty to comply with judicial determinations of unavailability also provided for in the said law.

In addition, companies may enter into agreements or contracts with financial institutions, stipulators, insurance representatives, microinsurance correspondents, distributors of savings bonds, institutes, trustees, or companies that manage databases, that have records containing information, or information and documents, that comply with the Circular.

The violation of the provisions of this Circular, except with regard to Chapter XIV, will be punished under art. 12 of Law No. 9,613 of 1998 and the regulations in force, i.e.:

I - warning;

II - variable pecuniary fine not exceeding

a) twice the amount of the transaction;

b) twice the actual profit obtained or that would presumably be obtained by carrying out the transaction; or

c) to the amount of R$ 20,000,000.00 (twenty million reais).

III - temporary disqualification, for a period of up to ten years, from exercising the position of director of the legal entities referred to in art. 9;

IV - revocation or suspension of authorization to carry out an activity, operation, or operation.

§ 1 The warning penalty will be imposed for irregularity in complying with the instructions referred to in items I and II of art. 10.

§ 2 The fine will be imposed whenever the persons referred to in article 9, through fault or intent:

I - fail to remedy the irregularities subject to a warning, within the deadline indicated by the competent authority;

II - do not comply with the provisions of items I to IV of art. 10;

III - fail to comply, within the established deadline, with the request formulated pursuant to item V of art. 10;

IV - fail to comply with the prohibition or fail to make the communication referred to in art. 11.

§ 3 Temporary disqualification will be applied when serious violations are found to comply with the obligations contained in this Law or when a specific recidivism occurs, duly characterized by transgressions previously punishable by a fine.

§ 4 The revocation of authorization will be applied in cases of specific recidivism of offenses previously punished with the penalty provided for in item III of the caput of this article.

In conclusion, the companies referred to here need to verify that their policies comply with the provisions of the Circular that comes into force in 01/03/2021.

However, we emphasize that there are two articles (45 and 46) that are already in force:

Art. 45. The persons mentioned in article 2 must comply, immediately and without prior notice, with the resolutions of the CSNU or the appointments of its sanctions committees that determine the unavailability of assets, of any amounts, directly or indirectly owned by natural persons, legal entities or entities, under the terms of Law No. 13,810 of March 8, 2019, without prejudice to the duty to comply with judicial determinations of unavailability also provided for in the said law.

Art. 46. The persons mentioned in article 2 must, within the limits of their powers, adapt their rules, procedures and internal controls with regard to all business relationships that already exist, or that may be subsequently initiated within their scope, in respect of which individuals, legal entities or entities reached by the determinations of unavailability referred to in article 45 can be identified as interested.

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