The constitutional amendment removes the bank from the federal budget — a direct challenge to Lula’s influence over monetary policy
A Brazilian Senate committee has advanced a bill granting the central bank full financial autonomy, pushing it further out of the government’s reach despite resistance from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration.
The constitutional amendment gives the bank complete control over its own budget for salaries and investment, funded by income from its financial assets rather than federal appropriations. The proposal now needs two rounds of approval in the full Senate before moving to the lower house for the same process.
The vote is a significant win for central bank Governor Gabriel Galipolo, who lobbied hard for the measure. The bill was originally championed by his predecessor Roberto Campos Neto in 2023 but stalled in the face of government opposition. Lula’s administration, which views the proposal as a further erosion of executive influence over monetary policy, only dropped its resistance in the final stages.
Brazil’s central bank had already gained operational autonomy in 2021, when a constitutional amendment decoupled the governor’s mandate from the presidential term. The new bill goes further, removing the institution from the federal budget entirely.
Galipolo argued the change was essential to address staff losses, growing supervisory responsibilities and the need for continued technology investment — including support for Pix, Brazil’s dominant instant payments network. The bill also enshrines Pix in the constitution as an exclusive central bank function, effectively ruling out privatisation.
The Pix provision carries geopolitical weight. The US administration recently cited the central bank’s dual role in running Pix as an unfair trade practice under a Section 301 investigation, a finding that contributed to proposals for new tariffs on Brazilian goods