The Council for Financial Activities Control ( pt, Conselho de Controle de Atividades Financeiras - COAF) is the national
Financial Intelligence Unit
Financial intelligence (FININT) is the gathering of information about the financial affairs of entities of interest, to understand their nature and capabilities, and predict their intentions. Generally the term applies in the context of law enfo ...
of
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
that is responsible for receiving and analyzing information on financial transactions which are considered to be linked to
money laundering. The COAF disseminates the results of its analyses to the competent authorities where there are grounds to suspect money laundering or terrorist financing.
It was originally created in 1998 "under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance.
Lists of current ministries of finance
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan)
* Ministry of Finance and Ec ...
, for the purpose of regulating, applying administrative sanctions, receiving pertinent information, examining and identifying suspicious occurrences of illicit activities related to
money laundering."
Its organization and structure, as well as its Internal Rules and Regulations, were also defined in a Decree and Administrative Rule respectively, both enacted between October and December 1998.
On 19 August 2019 the name of the COAF was changed to ''Financial Intelligence Unit'' (''Unidade de Inteligência Financeira'' in Portuguese) by an provisional decree of the President
Jair Bolsonaro, who transferred the newly created unit under the control of the
Central Bank of Brazil
The Central Bank of Brazil ( pt, Banco Central do Brasil) is Brazil's central bank. It was established on Thursday, 31 December 1964, a New Year's Eve.
The bank is not linked to any ministry, currently being autonomous. Like other central banks ...
. However, the National Congress of Brazil amended the text of the decree, sanctioned by Law No. 13,974 of 7 January 2020, and decided that the name of the Unit would remain ''Council for Financial Activities Control'' (COAF).
See also
*
Federal institutions of Brazil
This is a list of the federal institutions of Brazil:
Legislative branch
*National Congress, ''Congresso Nacional''
:*Chamber of Deputies, ''Câmara dos Deputados''
:*Senate of Brazil, ''Senado Federal''
* Court of Audit of the Union, ''Tribu ...
References
External links
Official website in EnglishOfficial website in Portuguese
Executive branch of Brazil
Finance in Brazil
Brazilian intelligence agencies
{{brazil-gov-stub