The account is opened in my name, my fiancee also banks with Banco do Brasil
I use the account regularly and have had no problems to date.
I live in UK and visit Brasil at least 6 times per year.
If they close it so be it, but I am fairly confident after speaking with my fiancee that will not happen. Maybe my fiancee has some high level friends/relatives as well. We shall see, seems like sour grapes to me.
DGM, there's no "sour grapes" here my friend, it's a known reality. Ask JM or anyone else here that has intimate knowledge of the banking system here. I've been living here for one decade and have worked closely over the last 5 1/2 years with foreigners investing here. I have an account, numerous accounts, personal as well as business. I have a permanent visa and could become a dual citizen of brazil if I so chose. My daughter is a dual citizen and a brazilian national.
You could very well be right concerning your fiancé. If she has a friend that is the branch manager then they obviously allowed you to open an account. But that is not the norm. Matter of fact their policy since 2006 has not only been to not open C5 accounts, but actually to close the existing ones. So as I previously said, you are lucky. But don't think that's the rule and not the exception. And the same goes for all the banks here. Itaú, Bradesco, Caixa Economica, etc.
As I said before, in 2006 the reporting requirements here changed in regards to all C5 accounts and all branches that have these accounts are required to do an unbelievable amount of reporting. Matter of fact, every single transaction that is made by a C5 account has to be reported to Banco Central. I'm sure you can see the bank's dilemma. It's an absurd reality but nonetheless it's a reality. They made these new requirements because Brazil was becoming a popular spot to launder money.
I certainly hope your account stays open DGM. I'm just saying don't be surprised if it doesn't. I can put you in touch with at least a dozen english that had this very same thing happen to them. We also found a bank here, a Unibanco branch (now Itaú),that was opening these accounts. Then after they opened around 12 and the requests kept coming, they cut it off. It's simply beaurocratically impossible for a branch to have numerous C5 accounts open.