The Bank of Portugal is reported to be trying to “accelerate the separation between Montepio bank and the Associação Mutualista” – both currently run by banker Tomás Correia. The reason, explains national media, is that BdP is “seeking to avoid conflicts of the type that led to the collapse of Banco Espírito Santo and Group Espírito Santo”. Dinheiro Vivo reports that potentially worrying situations have already been flagged.
These include occasions where “clients have been persuaded to exchange deposits for titles with promises of returns that have not transpired”.
They are incidences that hark too closely to the drama now facing thousands of ‘commercial paper holders’ in troubled former BES subsidiaries.
Intriguingly, Dinheirovivo adds that a replacement for Correia at Montepio could end up being Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, the former finance minister in both Portuguese governments headed by José Sócrates.
