Central Bank of Costa Rica clarifies its limited oversight role over trade exchanges and urges legislation to enable regulation and supervision

The Central Bank of Costa Rica published a communiqué clarifying that, under current law, its role regarding trade exchanges is limited to “vigilance” rather than regulation or supervision, and that it has no sanctioning powers. It argued that this legal framework leaves gaps in the protection of financial consumers participating in transactions conducted through these exchanges. The central bank distinguished “vigilance” as observing activities to confirm compliance and reporting suspected breaches to the competent authority, versus regulation and supervision, which involve issuing and enforcing rules and applying sanctions. It cited Article 400(c) of the Commerce Code as assigning the central bank a duty of vigilance over trade exchanges but no responsibilities for regulating or supervising them, and none regarding brokerage firms operating through them. It also highlighted that any regulations it may issue are limited to exchange operations and orderly functioning and can only be adopted at the request and on the proposal of the exchange itself. The communiqué reiterated the central bank’s support for legal reform to assign clear regulatory and supervisory powers over trade exchanges and their brokerage firms to either the General Superintendency of Securities (SUGEVAL) or the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC), and noted discussion of amending the Securities Market Law to focus oversight on the activities performed in exchange transactions regardless of an entity’s label.