FIES default rates have doubled since 2014.

247 - The Ministry of Education is experiencing a continuous increase in defaults among former students following a period of growth in new contracts for the Student Financing Fund (Fies) from 2011 to 2014. According to data obtained by G1 through the Access to Information Law, the default rate doubled from 18,9% in December 2014 to 41% in March 2018, the most recent period for which information was provided by the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE).

In the market, a debtor is considered delinquent when they have been at least 90 days without paying their debt, which was the case for 249.433 students in March. This group of debtors represents 41% of the 612.225 people financed by FIES who went through the financing phase and the grace period (a period in which the entire amount was financed, but the debtor does not yet need to start paying it back), and entered the amortization phase.

Despite the problem, the government has not yet defined the rules for the Special Program for Regularization of FIES (Student Financing Fund), which was already included in the Provisional Measure for the New FIES, approved in the Senate last November.

In a statement to G1, FNDE (National Fund for Educational Development) said that "there are still no contracts linked to this Program" due to a lack of regulation.