Brazil’s money-laundering watchdog gets an upgrade

For years, Brazil's financial intelligence apparatus has operated like a cheap smoke detector in a building with faulty wiring: capable of sensing trouble, but structurally unable to do much about it. A new presidential decree aims at changing that, as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva overhauled COAF, Brazil’s money laundering enforcement agency.

The restructuring expands COAF's trusted-role positions from 39 to 66 and grows its total staff from 75 to 101. More consequentially, it creates three regional financial intelligence hubs in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Foz do Iguaçu.