Their lack of success in selling “good bank” Novo Banco for the right price at the right time has seen CEO Eduardo Stock da Cunha’s management team all forced to take salary cuts in the region of 20%. Jornal de Notícias reports the decision results from an EU ruling designed to ensure that “banks of transition”, as Novo Banco was set up to be, “do not take too long to sell”.
Portuguese media has been full of the embarrassing delay in offloading Novo Banco, which only recently declared eye-watering new losses for the first six months of this year.
With the initial auction pulled earlier this month after offers from Chinese and American groups were considered to be too low, the Bank of Portugal is said to be considering “various offers of interest” from new parties, and hopes to launch a second bid to sell the bank once the results of the ECB’s stress tests have been revealed in October.
