Brazilian Central Bank says system to “hunt” for forgotten funds will only operate in February

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Central Bank on Thursday night, January 27, announced that the Receivables System will only be available to the public again on February 14.

As soon as it was launched last Monday, January 24, the online system that “hunts” for funds forgotten by Brazilians in financial institutions was highly demanded and crashed the Central Bank’s website for days – it was only restored to its normal functioning on Thursday.

According to the Central Bank, the “amount of accesses to the website was 20 times higher than a peak day – or 50 times higher than a normal day,” it said in a statement. “This high demand for the website to access the SVR (Securities Receivable System) caused its instability, followed by unavailability, leading the Central Bank to take the SVR offline.”

To resume the service, the Central Bank says it is investing in its attendance capacity and, as of February 14, people will again be able to access the system.

Despite its instability, 79,000 citizens were able to access the Securities Receivable System, according to the Central Bank’s first assessment. Of these, 8,500 requests have redeemed at least R$900,000 (US$166,000).

At least R$8 billion are in the possession of financial institutions.

Anyone with money to be redeemed will be notified about the date they may request the funds to be transferred to their account. These transfer requests can be scheduled from March 7, according to the monetary authority’s statement.

The Central Bank also said that citizens need not worry about “forgotten” funds during the period in which the system is undergoing maintenance. “There is no risk of limitation or loss of these resources, which will remain stored by financial institutions waiting for their owners,” it said.

SCAM ALERT

In a statement, the Central Bank urged the population to be on alert about scams related to the system, as it does not contact anyone to provide information about the retained money.

“Any information about amounts receivable can only be obtained as of February 14,” it said.

“The request for redemption in the SVR will be made through a username and password and the funds will be transferred directly from financial institutions to citizens, who should not make any prior deposit to any person or institution.”