Franco left the Central Bank after the IMF Agreement and after the reelection of Fernando Henrique Cardoso for a second term in 1998. Franco received late in 1998 Euromoney's prize “Central Banker of the year, 1998”. Shortly after, Brazil moved into what was known as the "tripoid" policy: floating exchange rates, primary fiscal surplus and inflation targets. Brazil was ready, at this point, to switch from the exchange rate "anchor" into the inflation targets regime. Franco's account of controversies around the use of the exchange rate in the stabilization effort and of the dialogue between short term policies and long term reform goals was laid out in several of his writings, some in English. Rio Bravo Investimentos After a sabbatical year back at the Catholic University as full-time professor, Franco founded an investment company named Rio Bravo Investimentos, based in São Paulo, to manage mutual funds, structured products, and private equity, in association with Swiss Re. In August 2001 Rio Bravo acquired a broker dealer called Mercurio DTVM and started to manage REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and also with the public distribution of securities. Rio Bravo developed investment banking activities from 2003, when it acquired the local operation of Dresdner Kleinworth Benson, until 2007 when these activities were transferred to Lehman Brothers. Rio Bravo was active in private equity first through Rio Bravo Nordeste I FMIEE (focused on SMEs in the Northeast region), later, in 2007, with Rio Bravo Nordeste II, the largest regional private equity fund in the country. In February 2006 Rio Bravo acquired MVP Mercatto Venture Partners Ltda., renamed as Rio Bravo Venture Partners Ltda., a venture capital management company based in Rio de Janeiro. Later, in October 2010, Rio Bravo raised its first private equity fund dedicated to investments in renewable energy. In 2005 a Rio Bravo started Rio Bravo Project Finance Ltd to advise clients in infrastructure projects and also Rio Bravo Fundamental, a value driven listed equity mutual fund. In May 2008 Rio Bravo spun off its real estate based securitization business into a new company called RB Capital, with no shareholding from Rio Bravo partners. In 2016 RB Capital had its control bought by Orix Group from Japan. In August 2016, Rio Bravo's control was acquired by Fosun International, one of the largest private groups in China. Franco has been a member of several boards. He is now active as board member