Luciana Burr and Tiffanye Esteves de Queiroz
On December 17, 2014, Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (local acronym CVM) published Rule No. 554/2014 (the ‘ICVM 554’) changing the definition of ‘qualified investor’ and creating the ‘professional investor’ category.
Under the ICVM 554, professional investors are: (i) financial institutions and any other institutions authorized to operate by the Central Bank of Brazil; (ii) insurance and capitalization companies; (iii) open pension funds (local acronym EAPC) and closed pension funds (local acronym EFPC); (iv) individuals or legal entities that hold financial investments exceeding BRL 10,000,000.00 and that represent in writing that they are ‘professional investors’ (the minimum amount used to be BRL 300,000.00); (v) investment funds; (vi) investment clubs whose portfolio is managed by a portfolio manager authorized by the CVM; (vii) independent investment agents, portfolio managers, securities analysts and consultants authorized by the CVM, in relation to their own resources; and (vii) non-resident investors.
