The President of Novo Banco started by framing the sale of the bank and stated that a bet was placed on a solution that would keep “Banco Uno” and a “type of constant and annual capitalization”, guaranteeing the “best possible result”.
With the sale of the bank, explained António Ramalho, “a restructuring process started until 2020, with the objective of cleaning the balance sheet and also of developing the resulting bank”. We sought “a solution that would minimize and benefit the rating of the Republic” and “the bank remained one, the type of constant and annual capitalization was maintained, in order to ensure that we had the best possible result from this structure”.
“Between the period when the sale was decided and the period when the sale took place, the Republic’s interest rates dropped from four to 1.9 percent”, continued the president of the executive. “It may be a coincidence, but for me there are no coincidences.”
“A state aid agreement was necessary, signed between the Portuguese State and the European Union, where a set of commitments was defined – which the bank is obliged to fulfill”, he added.
“Of the losses, more than 95 percent are caused by losses before 2014, there is not a single credit, a single new name that has been granted after the resolution”, said António Ramalho.
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The official also said that asset sales made in recent years happened because the bank was obliged to do so, complying with the rules of international tenders, with specialized advice and scrutiny.
António Ramalho considered that in the last three months the Novo Banco received an “unprecedented set of criticisms” and it remained “silent within the limits of its possibilities” because the audit was taking place, but now “the cycle of silence has ended and that of clarification has started”.
Deloitte’s audit of BES / Novo Banco’s management acts refers to the period between 2000 and 2018 (that is, covering both the period before and after BES’s resolution and the creation of Novo Banco), has been taking place since last year and it should have been completed in July, having been handed over to the Government on Tuesday.
According to information obtained by Lusa, Deloitte delivered the full audit to Novo Banco, Banco de Portugal and the Resolution Fund. The Ministry of Finance was given an audit without the names of the credit clients, parts subject to bank secrecy.
Even so, when sending the report to parliament, the Government indicated the mention of confidentiality
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The chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, Filipe Neto Brandão, told Lusa on Tuesday that the deputies have full access to the document, but through computers that have software to protect classified digital information, which tracks the consultation. .
Regarding the public disclosure of the document, the chairman of the parliamentary commission said that he determined that the legal services identify the parties protected by bank secrecy or other that justify confidentiality so that the rest of the report is released on the parliament’s website for public knowledge.
The PS deputy estimated that this would happen in the “short term”.
This audit was already a cause for political confrontation, since last May between the Prime Minister, António Costa, the then Minister of Finance, Mário Centeno, and the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, after the head of Government said that the capital injection in Novo Banco would only be made after the audit was known when this injection had already been carried out (in the amount of 1,035 million euros).
In June and July, Novo Banco’s asset sales business was disclosed by the press, which caused distrust in the various political quarters and, in July, the Government said that Novo Banco should not carry out new asset portfolio sales operations until the audit is completed. known.
On Tuesday morning, the Ministry of Finance said, in a statement, that it had received the report of the external audit and that it “will be sent to the Attorney General’s Office considering the constitutional and legal powers of the Public Ministry”.
According to the Government, the report reveals net losses of 4,042 million euros at Novo Banco (between August 4, 2014, one day after BES’s resolution, and December 31, 2018) and “describes a set of serious shortcomings and deficiencies “at BES, until 2014, in the granting of credit and investment in financial and real estate assets.
Born in BES resolution (on August 3, 2014), 75% of Novo Banco was sold in October 2017 to the North American investment fund Lone Star, maintaining the Bank Resolution Fund 25%, in a solution agreed between Banco de Portugal and Government.
At the time of the sale, a contingent capital mechanism was agreed, which provides that by 2026 the Resolution Fund will compensate Novo Banco for capital losses on a set of assets that it `inherited` from BES up to 3,890 million euros.
Since then and until today, the Resolution Fund has injected 2,976 million euros and may still invest more than 900 million euros, values that each year have an impact on public accounts since the Resolution Fund is an entity within the sphere of State.
c / The day after tomorrow
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