Armando Vergílio dos Santos Júnior, the head of Brazilian insurance regulator Susep, has stepped down effective March 19 to run for congress, according to insurance federation CNSeg.

The regulator will launch a campaign for a seat in the lower house of the federal congress from his home state of Goiás, CNSeg said.

“We were surprised with the change at Susep,” insurance analyst Iago Whately at Banco Fator told BNamericas. “Nevertheless, the top job at a regulatory body is a political position and it’s natural that in any campaign season there will be some changes at various levels of government.”

Paulo dos Santos, an economist who was named as the interim head of Susep in the event of the current head’s absence in February, will now take charge. Santos worked for central bank BCB for 32 years in a variety of roles.

While not well-known, the new Susep head would seem an able technocrat to hold the post until the new president – to be elected in October – names a new permanent choice in 2011, Whately said.

The news of the departure at Susep follows wide speculation on whether BCB head Henrique Meirelles will also enter the political arena, either by running for senator also in Goiás or joining the presidential campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s chief of staff Dilma Rousseff as her VP nominee.

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