FRE: Brazil's Reference Form (Formulário de Referência)

FRE (Formulário de Referência) is the annual reference document Brazilian public companies file with the CVM. Unlike DFP and ITR, FRE focuses on company profile, governance, risks, and business description — not quarterly financial statements.

This page explains what FRE is, what it typically contains, and how to list and download FRE filings through apicvm.

What is FRE?

The Formulário de Referência is a comprehensive disclosure form. Think of it as the narrative and structural counterpart to numeric financial filings: who runs the company, how it makes money, what risks it faces, and how shareholders are treated.

Filter with type=FRE on GET /v1/documents to list reference forms for any ticker in the corpus.

When is FRE filed?

Companies update FRE annually. The dateRef typically aligns with the reference year (for example 2024-12-31).

FRE filings often span many PDF files per year — one per section or chapter. A single year may return dozens of documents. Use name metadata to find the section you need (business description, risk factors, compensation, related-party transactions).

What does FRE contain?

Typical FRE sections include:

Business description and operating segments
Risk factors (market, regulatory, operational)
Governance — board, committees, bylaws
Executive compensation and shareholder structure
Related-party transactions
Environmental and social disclosures (when applicable)

FRE is essential for qualitative research, compliance review, and RAG pipelines that answer "what are the main risks?" or "who controls the company?"

For a developer-oriented deep dive, see What is FRE? A Developer Guide.

How to list FRE via apicvm

export APICVM_KEY='apicvm_...'
export APICVM_URL='https://apicvm.dev'

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $APICVM_KEY" \
  "$APICVM_URL/v1/documents?ticker=WEGE3&type=FRE&year=2024&perPage=50"

FRE list results are often long — paginate with page and perPage (max 50):

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $APICVM_KEY" \
  "$APICVM_URL/v1/documents?ticker=WEGE3&type=FRE&year=2024&page=2&perPage=50"

Python example

import os, requests

BASE = os.environ["APICVM_URL"]
H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['APICVM_KEY']}"}

page = 1
while True:
    r = requests.get(
        f"{BASE}/v1/documents",
        headers=H,
        params={"ticker": "WEGE3", "type": "FRE", "year": 2024, "page": page, "perPage": 50},
    )
    r.raise_for_status()
    payload = r.json()
    for doc in payload["data"]:
        print(doc["name"], doc["id"])
    if page >= payload["meta"]["lastPage"]:
        break
    page += 1

Download an FRE file

curl -OJ -H "Authorization: Bearer $APICVM_KEY" \
  "$APICVM_URL/v1/documents/<document-id>/file"

For RAG over risk and governance sections, enqueue page-level extraction. See Build a RAG Pipeline with Brazil CVM Filings.

FRE vs DFP vs ITR

Type	Cadence	Focus
DFP	Annual	Audited financial statements
ITR	Quarterly	Interim financial updates
FRE	Annual	Profile, governance, risks

Use DFP/ITR for numbers; use FRE for narrative and structural context.

Current limitations

FRE availability depends on the apicvm corpus — only ingested companies and periods.
High file count per year — plan pagination and selective ingestion for RAG.
Downloads are PDF originals in Portuguese — no automatic translation.
Section structure varies by company; name is your primary navigation aid.

Next steps

Ready to integrate?

Get an API key and start querying Brazilian CVM filings programmatically.

Read the API docs Get API key