Federal Police Call Two Central Bank Chiefs as Witnesses
BRAZIL · CENTRAL BANK
Key Facts
- —The summons Federal police have called four figures to testify in the Banco Master inquiry.
- —Who Central bank president Gabriel Galípolo, his predecessor Roberto Campos Neto, the bank’s supervision director Ailton de Aquino Santos, and BTG Pactual’s André Esteves.
- —Their status All four are summoned as witnesses, not as suspects. The distinction is in the document.
- —The document Signed on 3 August. It became public on 9 September.
- —The subject How the central bank supervised Banco Master, which was liquidated in November 2025.
- —No date No source has reported when the hearings will take place. They are to be held by videoconference.
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Two central bank presidents and the head of BTG Pactual have been called to explain how Banco Master was supervised. All four are witnesses, and that word is doing a lot of work.
A federal police summons signed in early August and made public on Wednesday calls Brazil’s sitting central bank president, his predecessor, the bank’s supervision director and BTG Pactual’s controlling partner to give evidence in the Banco Master investigation.
The Four Names
Gabriel Galípolo has been president of the Banco Central do Brasil since January 2025. Roberto Campos Neto, his predecessor, ran it before that.
Ailton de Aquino Santos is the central bank’s current supervision director, and his inclusion is the one that points most directly at what the inquiry is about.
André Esteves is the controlling partner of BTG Pactual. He is expected to be asked about elements of the case that touch the bank.
Coverage of the summons in Brazil has repeatedly listed three names. There are four.
Witness, Not Suspect
Every outlet that has seen the document reports the same procedural status: testemunhas. Witnesses. Not investigados.
That is not a formality. In Brazilian procedure a witness has different obligations, different protections and a different relationship to the eventual outcome than a person under investigation. Reporting the summons as though four senior financial figures had been placed under suspicion would be wrong.
The document was signed on 3 August. It surfaced publicly on 9 September, in the middle of a week in which the Banco Master file was already producing emergency decisions at the Supreme Court.
What They Will Be Asked About
The inquiry concerns how Banco Master was supervised, and whether there were improper relationships or advantages involving Daniel Vorcaro and central bank officials. Master was liquidated in November 2025.
Galípolo and Campos Neto are expected to be asked about central bank actions and decisions involving Master during their respective terms. Esteves about BTG’s points of contact with the matter.
No operation codename has been reported. No hearing date has been reported either, and readers should treat any specific date circulating without a source as unverified.
Silence From Both Institutions
The central bank and BTG Pactual had not responded to requests for comment by the time the story was published in Brazil.
The central bank’s position is the more delicate of the two. Its credibility rests on being seen to supervise without favour, and a sitting governor giving evidence about his institution’s handling of a failed bank is uncomfortable regardless of what he says.
It is also, in the narrow sense, routine. Supervisors are the people who know how supervision worked. Asking them is what an investigation into supervision looks like.
What Supervision of Banco Master Involved
Banco Master grew rapidly in the years before its liquidation, funding itself largely through certificates of deposit sold to retail investors at rates well above the market, distributed through digital brokerages.
That funding model is legal and it is closely watched, because a bank paying materially above the market for deposits is either taking more risk on the asset side or is short of alternatives. Both conditions attract supervisory attention.
The central bank’s supervision department is the body that monitors exactly this. What it saw, when it saw it, and what it did about it are therefore the natural questions in any inquiry into how the bank reached liquidation in November 2025.
That is why the presence of Ailton de Aquino Santos on the summons list matters more than the two presidents. He runs the department whose work is under examination.
Why BTG Is in the Frame
BTG Pactual featured in the Banco Master story through 2025 as one of the institutions that engaged with Master’s situation as it deteriorated, in a period when several possible resolutions involving private buyers were discussed publicly.
A witness summons to André Esteves is consistent with investigators wanting an account of those discussions from someone who was in them.
It is not evidence that BTG did anything improper, and the summons does not assert that. Investigators call witnesses because witnesses know things.
Neither BTG nor the central bank had responded to press requests when the summons was reported.
The Timing Question
The document was signed on 3 August and became public on 9 September, in the middle of the week that produced three emergency Supreme Court decisions on related matters.
A five-week gap between signature and publication is not remarkable in itself. Federal police documents surface when they surface, often through the parties themselves or through their lawyers.
The gap is worth noting because of what happened in between. The plea agreement that triggered the Supreme Court crisis was homologated in that window, and the Moraes and Vorcaro file reached the court.
Whether the summons emerging now is coincidence or is part of the same disclosure dynamic is not something the public record answers, and it should not be asserted either way.
What the record does show is a Banco Master investigation with several distinct branches running at once: the central bank supervision inquiry, the CVM penalty against Vorcaro, the plea material, and the file concerning a sitting justice.
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has been summoned?
Central bank president Gabriel Galípolo, former president Roberto Campos Neto, supervision director Ailton de Aquino Santos and BTG Pactual’s André Esteves.
Are they under investigation?
No. All four are summoned as witnesses. The document specifies testemunhas, not investigados.
When will they testify?
No date has been reported. The hearings are to be held by videoconference.
What is the inquiry about?
How the central bank supervised Banco Master, which was liquidated in November 2025, and whether officials had improper relationships with its controller.
Have the institutions responded?
Neither the central bank nor BTG Pactual had commented at the time of publication in Brazil.
Sources: Jovem Pan, ICL Notícias, Jornal do Comércio, Revista Fórum.
This article was drafted with automated assistance and reviewed before publication. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief