Coordenação Regulatória no Sistema Financeiro Nacional: os impactos do Ato Normativo Conjunto nº 1/2018 sobre o controle de concentrações bancárias

This study examines the institutional interaction between the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) and the Central Bank of Brazil (Bacen) in the merger control of the Brazilian banking sector. Historically, the regulation of these transactions has been shaped by the need to reconcile the roles of the competition authority and the financial regulator, fostering the development of institutional coordination mechanisms between the two agencies. Against this background, the article addresses the following research question: how has the formalization of regulatory coordination between CADE and Bacen, established by Joint Normative Act No. 01/2018, affected CADE's decision-making pattern under the cooperative model and the procedural efficiency of merger review involving financial institutions in Brazil? The study hypothesizes that the institutionalization of this cooperative framework reduced the average duration of merger review proceedings and increased the convergence of legal reasoning, leading to a lower incidence of competition remedies imposed independently by CADE compared to the period preceding the normative framework. Methodologically, the research adopts a comparative case study approach, examining all merger cases reviewed jointly by CADE and the Central Bank before and after the enactment of Joint Normative Act No. 01/2018. The analysis covers the period from 2012 to 2024, encompassing six years before and six years after the adoption of the Joint Normative Act. Finally, the study assesses the effects of this coordinated institutional framework on procedural efficiency and the reduction of information asymmetry.