The Bank of Portugal has been given 100 days to come up with information MPs have been pushing for for months, if not years: the list of the country’s ‘largest debtors’ – the people and or companies that owe the most to Portuguese banks that have requested State aid over the last 12 years. It’s all part of the focus on ‘ruinous management’ ongoing in the media.
But the bank’s governor has said the time limit (which gets us to May 23) is ‘unworkable’.
Carlos Costa is already under attack from all sides (click here).
At issue are recapitalisations extended not only to State Bank CGD, but to BES/ Novo Banco, Banif, BPN, BCP and BPI – all of which needed public funds to achieve minimum capital ratios during the ‘crisis years’ (when Portugal was under the auspices of the ‘troika’).
What happens next will become clearer over the next few days.
Costa’s arguments over ‘unworkability’ centre on the difficulty in amassing the data requested, in the terms laid out under a law that comes into effect tomorrow (Wednesday February 13).
