In its first week of operation, the Banco Central do Brasil's BC Protege+ service blocked 6,879 attempts to open fraudulent accounts. Over 238,600 people activated the protection, and financial institutions made 5.2 million consultations to the system. Launched on July 1, the free service aims to enhance security against identity fraud.
The BC Protege+ was launched by the Banco Central do Brasil on July 1 as an additional safeguard to protect individuals and businesses from fraud in opening checking accounts, savings accounts, or prepaid payment accounts. By 4:15 p.m. on July 5, the system had recorded 238,600 activations by individuals, with company employees also able to enable it on behalf of organizations through gov.br.
Financial institutions conducted 5.2 million consultations to the system to check account opening requests or additions of account holders, making verification mandatory before any approval. Activating the service formally signals that the user does not intend to open new accounts or be added as a holder or representative on others' accounts, thereby blocking identity fraud attempts.
Activation requires logging into the Meu BC website with a gov.br account at silver or gold level and two-step verification enabled. The protection is recorded and automatically shared with institutions during their checks. If a user needs to open an account, they can temporarily deactivate the service and schedule an automatic reactivation to restore security.
The Banco Central highlights that BC Protege+ is free and can be enabled or disabled at any time, serving as an extra layer against the misuse of personal data in financial products.