The Central Bank of Brazil: Public or Private? Reflections on the Ambivalence of the Central Bank of Brazil and the Legal Safeguards for Currency Distribution

Abstract

The Central Bank of Brazil is an autarchy of the federal government
that checks the monopoly on currency distribution. In the majority of
developed countries, the central bank is privately owned. However, in Brazil
and in other countries with slow development, the central bank is public.
Nevertheless, public central banks operate in practically the same way that
private banks do, especially in regards to currency distribution, which, by
means of legal devices, is a private monopoly almost all over the world. The
goal of this paper is to analyze the public-private dichotomy, starting with
an analysis of the legal safeguards of currency distribution in Brazil. On that
point, we conclude that the evidence indicates that the degree of independence
that the Central Bank of Brazil has acquired is linked to lobbies won
by economic elites, who benefit from public debt titles, over political elites.