The legal claims market has just suffered an important transformation.
The structuring of Receivables Investment Funds (FIDCs) focused on Legal Claims, a segment encompassing judicial claims, has established itself as an efficient alternative for institutional and qualified investors seeking attractive returns uncorrelated with traditional credit cycles. The growth of this market has, however, exposed the need for greater legal certainty in transactions involving the assignment of federal court-ordered debt payments (precatórios).
On June 10, 2026, Normative Ordinance No. 225/2026 of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federal Government (Advocacia-Geral da União, “AGU”) was published in the Federal Official Gazette. The rule regulates paragraph 14 of Article 100 of the Federal Constitution and provides that the assignment of a precatório claim shall only take effect against the Federal Government, its agencies (autarquias), and public foundations if it is formally communicated to the AGU.
The regulation represents a concrete raising of the operational standards required of managers, structurers, and custodians of FIDCs with exposure to federal precatórios.
We highlight below 3 relevant impacts of this new requirement for managers and investors:
1. Greater Rigor in Origination Due Diligence: The acquisition of precatórios by an FIDC must now include verification of the complete chain of prior assignments. Article 3 of the Ordinance provides that, absent formal communication to the AGU by way of an electronic petition, the assignment does not take effect against the Federal Government, regardless of any communication made to the court of origin. Accordingly, legal due diligence in the origination of the asset now requires evidence of such communication, mitigating the risk of challenges to the validity of the assignment as against the debtor entity.
2. Need to Adapt the Governance of Existing Portfolios: A crucial point of attention lies in the sole paragraph of Article 2 of the rule, which requires communication of prior assignments in successive chains, including those that occurred before the Ordinance came into force. In practice, funds that already hold federal precatórios in their portfolios will need to carry out a retroactive mapping of the assets acquired and file the required communications. This process will demand significant operational effort from legal and back-office teams to ensure the enforceability against third parties (oponibilidade) of the entire history of the chain of assignments.
3. Increased Transparency and Institutionalization of the Secondary Market: The requirement of formal communication creates a centralized system affording greater visibility over the flow of federal precatório transactions. The provision for the AGU to develop an electronic system for filing and data-sharing within up to 180 days of publication signals an unprecedented level of transparency. For the institutional investor, this traceability makes the process more verifiable and auditable, reducing information asymmetry and creating conditions for expanding exposure to this asset class with greater legal certainty.
Ordinance No. 225/2026 comes into force 180 days after its publication, a period that serves as an adaptation window for the market. Failure to comply with the new rules expressly authorizes Federal Government attorneys to argue in court that irregular assignments do not take effect.
The implementation of these guidelines represents a consistent step in the institutionalization of the Legal Claimsmarket. For FIDCs, swift adaptation to this new regulatory framework will be essential to ensure the protection of invested capital and the effectiveness of allocation strategies in federal precatórios.
