Febraban defends task force against impacts of betting

The president of the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban), Isaac Sidney, demanded from the federal government a “cleaning brake” and a task force to contain the impacts of betting on bets. He participated in a meeting with the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, this Wednesday (3).

“It is not up to Febraban to make proposals on public policies. We have a focus: it is the concern with measures to prevent over-indebtedness, with the compromising of family income, budget and the financial health of families”, Isaac told journalists after meeting with Haddad.

At the time, Isaac says he defended the suspension or limitation of the use of Pix in online betting. The concern arose after the Central Bank showed that 5 million Bolsa Família beneficiaries bet around R$3 billion in August.

“This tidying brake goes through some emergency and temporary measures. We have advocated that instant payment methods, such as Pix, but not only those, can be temporarily suspended for the payment of bets”, he stated.

According to Isaac, it was also proposed to the minister to create a task force between the government and the private sector to study the impacts of betting in Brazil.

“It is important to have an accurate diagnosis. On the private sector side, we have entities with legitimacy that can represent sectors that are concerned about family debt”, explained the president of Febraban.

Using Pix in betting

Issac Sidney once again defended that Pix be suspended for bet payments and if this is not done, he suggested that there should be at least a limit for this type of payment. The Central Bank reported that Pix represents more than 90% of payments to bookmakers.

“One of the ways instead of prohibiting the use of instantaneous means is to impose limits per transaction. But the focus is not on a specific means of payment. The focus is to find ways to avoid a deterioration in the level of family debt”, he added.

According to the president of the federation, Haddad and the secretary of Prizes and Bets, Regis Dudena, are determined to face the problem and control “CPF by CPF”.