ABAAI is the Brazilian Association of Autonomous Investment Agents, which represents people who act as intermediaries between investors and capital market products and services .
ABAAI is considered a class association and its objective is to promote and offer the premises for the conduct of independent investment agents in the market.
What is ABAAI for?
The association’s mission is to guide these professionals to act and what are the obligations and limitations attributed to them. According to ABAAI, the autonomous agent has the function of presenting the market to investors, contributing to the access of more Brazilians to the capital market.
Among the functions of the agent are:
- prospecting and attracting customers;
- receive and register the purchase and sale orders of assets;
- provide information about brokerage firms’ products and services to investors.
Acting as intermediaries, autonomous investment agents have some limitations in their regulated activities. In this case, they cannot perform analysis of securities, provide investment advice or manage portfolio.
In a practical way, agents can clarify doubts about some products and services, but they cannot assemble the client’s portfolio, for example.
How is the autonomous agent accredited?
According to ABAAI, for autonomous agents to act, they need to be accredited by an entity authorized to grant this type of license. This accrediting entity must be authorized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) and prove that it has a self-regulatory structure and even provide a code of conduct for agents.
Accreditation is done by the National Association of Securities Brokers and Distributors, Foreign Exchange and Merchandise (ANCORD). However, the registration of the activity is granted by the CVM itself. This certification procedure is provided for in CVM Instruction nº.497 / 11 .
For investors who want to check that the self-employed agents are actually accredited to work, there are two channels: the ABAAI website and the CVM website.
Changes
Throughout 2019, ABAAI and groups of autonomous investment agents have been working for changes in the performance of these professionals. Some demands were the request to officially change the term by which the professional is designated, from “autonomous investment agent” to “investment advisor” and the end of the exclusivity of being linked only to a single broker.
The agent market is undergoing changes as traditional banks offer fewer job opportunities and the number of individual investors has been growing and seeking guidance. With that, many professionals who worked in banks, started to act as agents.
According to data collected by ANCORD until September 2019, in Brazil there are 8,800 people accredited as an autonomous agent, while ABAAI represents more than 2,000 professionals.
