Government plans meeting on INSS payroll until Friday – 03/20/2023 – Market

The Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government will hold a new meeting until next Friday (24th) in search of an agreement for the impasse generated by the reduction of the ceiling of the interest rate of the payroll loan of the INSS (National Institute of Insurance Social), from 2.14% to 1.70% per month. The meeting will be attended by representatives of the financial system and banks.

“After a meeting with the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and of Social Security, Carlos Lupi, and other authorities, it was agreed that a new meeting will be held until Friday (24) with representatives of the financial system, banks and the government to discuss the payroll interest rate”, informed the Civil House in a note.

“The expectation is to reach an agreement on the rate.

The new meeting was agreed upon after a meeting between ministers Rui Costa (Casa Civil) and Carlos Lupi (Social Security) at the Planalto Palace this Monday (20).

Also participating in the meeting were the executive secretaries of Finance, Gabriel Galípolo, and of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, Francisco Macena, in addition to the presidents of Caixa Econômica Federal, Rita Serrano, and of Banco do Brasil, Tarciana Medeiros.

According to interlocutors in the banking system, the Ministry of Finance will intermediate a working group with several actors to think about a way out and find a solution to the impasse.

Such as Sheet showed, the reduction of the INSS payroll loan interest ceiling from 2.14% to 1.7% was the result of a conflict between Lupi and the Planalto Palace.

According to reports from members of the government, the measure was even presented to Lula in a meeting on the 8th and the representative gave the endorsement for the proposal to begin to be processed internally and to hear the ministries involved, in particular the Treasury.

Lupi, in turn, would have understood that he could keep the analysis of the topic at the meeting of the CNPS (National Social Security Council) held on Monday (13).

The cut in the INSS payroll loan interest ceiling was approved by 12 of the 15 participants of the National Social Security Council – the three employer representatives were the only votes against the measure.

If an agreement is reached at the meeting that will take place until Friday, the board could review the decision next week. In conversation with Sheet Last Friday (17), workers’ representatives were not willing to revisit the issue before the next meeting of the body, which should only take place at the end of April.

If the resistance of the three workers’ representatives continues, the government would have to change its six votes to have a majority and raise the rate, if that is the agreement reached this week.

As a result of the cut in the INSS payroll interest ceiling, private and public banks suspended credit operations in this line.

The financial institutions argue that they are carrying out technical studies of economic viability and that the availability of the credit line is subject to the conclusion of the analyses.

Estimates made by the financial sector show that, by offering payroll loans to retirees and pensioners at an interest rate of 1.70% per month, banks would have a negative return of 0.23% on operations.

This means that the institutions would suffer losses with the modality, which is not allowed, according to the resolution of the CMN (National Monetary Council) which says that “the contracting institution must implement a systematic monitoring and control of the economic viability of the operation”.