R$14bn transferred to judicial accounts in the first half to settle creditor claims

07/02/2024

---

Judge Keity Saboya — Foto: Divulgação

The judicial system has markedly improved its efficiency in freezing funds in debtors’ bank and investment accounts. In the first six months of the year, the Judiciary’s Asset Search System (Sisbajud) saw a record surge in successful orders, with 4.9 million requests positively impacting creditors—the highest in the system’s semiannual history. A staggering R$40.8 billion was frozen during this period.

Additionally, the volume of transferred funds to judicial accounts reached record levels, with 3.8 million deposits totaling R$14.4 billion made in the first half of the year. This marks the second-highest amount recorded since the National Council of Justice (CNJ) began its tracking, only surpassed by the first half of 2018’s R$19.8 billion.

Experts note a discrepancy between the amounts frozen by the courts and those deposited in judicial accounts, as the system tends to block more funds than necessary. The process of transferring these funds is not automatic, allowing room for the debtor to contest the action.

“Once financial resources are blocked, the judge must notify the defendant, who has five days to demonstrate that the blocked amounts are either exempt from seizure or excessively high. In such instances, the judge will order the cancellation of the freeze, thereby returning the funds to the defendant,” explains Judge Keity Saboya of the 6th Tax Enforcement Court in Natal and assistant to the Chief Office of the CNJ.

The effectiveness of asset freezes in Brazil has significantly improved thanks to an overhaul of the court’s asset search system initiated in 2021. This enhancement stemmed from a 2019 technical cooperation agreement between the CNJ, the Central Bank of Brazil, and the Attorney General’s Office of the National Treasury (PGFN). The aim was to enhance the technological capabilities of the platform, which was subsequently transferred from the Central Bank to the CNJ.

This transformation has yielded notable results, culminating in the latest phase of implementation in April. This phase extended the duration from 30 to 60 days for the use of “teimosinha” (Brazilian Portuguese for “stubborn”), an automated tool developed with Sisbajud that persistently searches for a debtor’s financial assets. This tool scans all bank accounts and investments, whether in fixed or variable income assets like stocks, linked to the debtor’s tax ID or business taxpayer number daily. It continues until it locates sufficient funds to satisfy the debt.

Previously, with the Bacenjud system, asset searches were conducted over a single day, allowing debtors sufficient time to withdraw funds upon learning of a court decision. “It often took long enough for the debtor to become aware of the decision and withdraw money from the account,” explains Wagner Roberto Ferreira Pozzer, a partner at Rubens Naves Santos Jr. Advogados. The recent updates not only expedited the process but also introduced confidentiality, catching debtors off guard when their accounts are seized.

The extension of the search duration for “teimosinha” aims to “increase the effectiveness of the tools used in the search and seizure of assets during enforcement proceedings,” states Judge Keity Saboya, who serves on the Sisbajud Steering Committee at the CNJ. This committee, formed in February this year, includes representatives from the PGFN, the Central Bank, and federal, state, and labor courts.

While it is still early to definitively assess the impacts of this extension, Judge Keity notes that concrete results explaining the increased effectiveness of asset freezes are pending. However, further enhancements to the system are already in the pipeline for imminent implementation.

The CNJ is focused on further enhancing the automation within the system, including the implementation of automatic notifications for successful account blocks. Currently, the platform dispatches orders to banks by 7 p.m. on the same day, requiring responses by the following day. The goal is to reduce this response time significantly, potentially achieving real-time responses.

Furthermore, the Steering Committee is considering integrating Sisbajud with the National Asset Investigation and Recovery System (SNIPER), which would streamline and expedite asset searches across various databases. “For 2024, we are aiming to establish a unified portal that will manage the searching, blocking, and seizing of debtor assets,” explains Judge Keity Saboya. This integration would combine Sisbajud with other key systems, such as Renajud, which handles vehicle seizures, and Receitajud, which processes requests to the Federal Revenue Service, alongside other existing databases.

Ricardo Soriano Fay, substitute federal judge of the 1st Federal Court of Passo Fundo and representative of the Federal Justice Council on the Management Committee, attributes this year’s rise in successful blockings to three key factors: the increased application of the “teimosinha” function, a larger number of participants in the financial system, and greater investments in the stock market.

He is optimistic about the potential benefits of extending the search period for “teimosinha.” “The nature of transactions means funds may move in and out of accounts quickly, sometimes eluding Sisbajud’s reach. Extending the blocking attempts to 60 days is designed to give creditors a better opportunity to recover debts and enhance the likelihood of payment,” explains Judge Fay.

Rodolfo Amadeo, a professor of civil procedure at FGV Direito SP, supports the idea of integrating Sisbajud with other systems to enhance the efficiency of collection actions. “Currently, various regionalized systems exist; the board of trade operates one way, the real estate registry another, and the absence of a unified system makes the process both costly and time-consuming for creditors. A unified system would streamline these efforts significantly,” he explains.

Mr. Amadeo points to Portugal’s 2014 centralization as a successful model, noting that it allows for an out-of-court search of a debtor’s assets before initiating a collection action. “If the preliminary search reveals no assets, the creditor may decide not to proceed with the execution,” he said.

The professor attributes the rise in the amounts blocked to the increased adoption of artificial intelligence in the judiciary since 2021. This is reflected in the Sisbajud data, which shows a notable increase in constriction attempts—almost doubling annually for the first six months. In 2024, during this period, over 105,000 blocking orders were issued, a significant rise from 76,800 in 2023 and 49,600 in 2022, underscoring the impact of the “teimosinha” feature. Prior to these developments, in 2021, there were fewer than 17,000 attempts.

Additionally, the professor points to the centralization of judicial demands in registry offices as another catalyst for efficiency gains. In São Paulo, for example, the establishment of the Judicial Processing Unit has consolidated three or more offices of the same jurisdiction to process and execute judicial orders. This reorganization has improved magistrate productivity by nearly 50% and reduced case processing times by about 60%, according to data from the São Paulo State Court.

*Por Marcela Villar — São Paulo

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/