A web information system for determining the controllers of financial entities in central bank of Brazil

Abstract

A Web information system was implemented to find controllers of the stock shares for the most financial institutions, which are supervised by Central Bank of Brazil (BCB). The original problem is similar to a typical Sum of Subset problem that might be solved by a backtracking algorithm and the problem complexity is NP-complete. Usually BCB finds controllers manually, which is time consuming and prone to errors for a large financial institution. Based on the property of the distribution of stock shares, a heuristic approximation algorithm was developed with polynomial complexity O(n ^3 ). The paper describes the basic concepts and business rules currently employed at BCB, the algorithm and its major subroutines. It also gives a brief complexity analysis, an illustrative example and a case study for Atlântida Bank. Web on-line application of the system since 2003 indicates the feasibility and trustworthiness of this automation process. Though developed for BCB, it works equally well for the related financial institutions.