Over five years since the collapse of BES, 1,500 Portuguese emigrés who lost fortunes are still waiting for a solution.
These are not the victims of BES’ ‘commercial paper’ scam. They are clients who purchased products dubbed EG Premium and EuroAforro 10.
Says AMELP – the association of emigrés affected by BES’ collapse – the government promised back in 2016 that it would find a solution for victims.
But in these two cases, nothing has changed.
Now the families affected are reaching points where they need the money they thought they had saved to help with “extra expenses” – particularly for medicines and associated health reasons, AMELP president Luís Marques tells Lusa.
“We don’t want to cause problems”, he said. “We simply want an equitable solution. We are fighting to recuperate our savings” – and the feeling is that these investments are every bit as legitimate as others, like that of commercial paper holders, which have already been ‘settled’ (albeit not to everyone’s total satisfaction).
The two former BES products in question were left out of a deal brokered between AMELP and the government in 2017 “due to their complexity”.
Novo Banco, which took over BES business after it crashed, is “aware of the situation” but, says AMELP, it has found it difficult to even table a meeting with the bank to find out what is happening.
