Lula government's Desenrola: 10 million small debts taken off the bad-credit lists.

According to the Finance Ministry, Desenrola Brasil benefited 15.06 million people and renegotiated R$ 53.07 billion in debt. 3 million people renegotiated in Faixa 2 and about 5 million in Faixa 1, where defaulters fell 8.7%, from 25.2 to 23.1 million. In the first phase, the main banks removed 10 million records of debts up to R$ 100 from bad-credit lists^[1].

Nationwide, the number of people on default lists did not fall during the program: 71.41 million in July 2023 and 72.5 million in May 2024^[5][6]. In August 2026, there were 83.98 million, up from 69.4 million in December 2022^[4][2]. In July, the share of household income committed to debt payments reached 28.72%, the highest since 2005^[7].

Since January 3, 2024, interest on revolving card credit cannot exceed 100% of the debt: R$ 100 can become at most R$ 200. It applies only to debts from that date on, and there is no cap on the annual rate or on card installments^[8].

The average rate was 444.89% a year in August 2026. At the end of the Bolsonaro government, a period that included the pandemic, it was 411.93%; in December 2018, 292.86%^[3]. The Central Bank calls the annual rate “merely a statistical record”: customers usually stay in revolving credit for days or weeks^[9].

In July 2026, 82% of families had some debt, including debt paid on time, the highest level on record. In September 2022, under the Bolsonaro government, the record at the time was 79.3%^[10][11]. Among indebted families, 16.1% owe on a carnê (store installment plan)^[10]. In 2023, Desenrola Brasil's Faixa 1 accepted overdue retail bills^[12].

In 2026, Novo Desenrola Brasil, a separate program created by provisional measure (MP), covered credit cards, overdrafts, personal loans and Fies^[13]. That MP lapsed on August 31 without becoming law^[14]. Desenrola Brasil 3.0 covers retail debts under R$ 10,000. The discount only arrives in February 2027, and the MP's initial deadline in Congress ends on November 23^[15]. That MP, of September 25, created 3.0 within the 2023 Desenrola Brasil law^[16]. Under the Constitution, an MP is valid for 60 days, extendable once for another 60, not counting congressional recess, and lapses if it is not turned into law^[17].

On Novo Desenrola Brasil, launched in May, Flávio said Lula wants to “fight a fire with a glass of water”^[18]. In a livestream, he proposed the SOS Brasil fund, built on oil royalties, federal property and securitization, to, among other things, buy debts from banks and refinance them at Caixa with discounts of up to 90%^[19].

Flávio's government plan mentions “the card's revolving balance, the overdraft and the overdue carnê” and blames that interest on the “cost of money in a country where the government is the biggest borrower”. It promises to ban the use of social-program funds for betting and expand financial guidance through Caixa “so Brazilians learn to get out of the red”. To lower interest rates, it promises to cut public debt and has no measure specific to card interest or the carnê. The SOS Brasil fund does not appear in the text^[20].

There is no record of Flávio's vote on the revolving-credit rule: the Senate approved it by voice vote^[21]. On the 25th, the vote decides who takes care of this bill.