On March 15, 1990 – with the implementation of the Economic Plan of the then President of the Republic, better known as the Collor Plan 1 –, practically all banking and financial operations underwent changes. However, some of the criteria adopted, especially by Banco do Brasil, on account of an erroneous notice from the Central Bank, were illegal – especially those for readjusting debts arising from rural loans, working-capital funding, investments, and financing (rural credit).
Relying on the notice, Banco do Brasil adopted for funding indexed to the Savings Account the monetary adjustment of the IPC at 84.32%, when it should have followed the same adjustment of the cruzeiro balances of the savings fund, that is, the BTN/BTNF, which would be at the percentage of 41.28%.
This measure caused an extraordinary increase in the debit balances of producers and companies operating in rural credit, and contradicted the law, logic, and the contracts entered into.
Several individual lawsuits were filed until, in 1994, recognizing the error committed, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office filed a Public Civil Action in order to challenge the harm suffered by the class. And finally in 2014, the STJ, confirming in October 2019, recognized the error committed and the right of producers to claim restitution of those unduly charged differences.
Holders of the right to restitution
Holders of the right to restitution are rural producers, whether legal entities or individuals, who entered into a Financing, Funding, or Investment contract with Banco do Brasil, arising from and indexed to the Savings Account, which were active in March 1990.
Such contracts were secured by means of Pledge Rural Notes, Mortgage Rural Notes, Pledge and Mortgage Rural Notes, and Rural Credit Notes. For the most part, they were necessarily registered on the property’s title record and in Registration Book 3. By means of these registrations, we can certify who the holders of the right to this restitution are.
It is essential that each producer who carried out funding with Banco do Brasil up to 1990 certify on each title record the existence of the registration of contracts by means of Rural Notes (CRP, CRPH, CRH, and NCR) and verify whether they underwent the improper adjustment applied by the advent of the Collor Plan, for the purpose of bringing the appropriate lawsuit to request restitution of those differences.
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