After all the promises, it now seems certain that redundancies loom for employees of Novo Banco, the ‘good bank’ coming out of the BES scandal.
In response to questions from an MEP, the European Commission has admitted the “possibility of redundancies at Portuguese banks that have received state aid, namely BES”, reports TVI24.
Commissioner for competitions Joaquín Almunia explained: “Banks that benefit from state help were all obliged to present plans for restructuring that define measures to re-establish long-term viability.”
“Some of those plans … consist in reducing the number of workers and the dimension of branch networks,” he added.
Pushing Almunia for a timetable, PCP MEP João Ferreira was informed that “the Portuguese government has promised to adopt measures for the bad bank and the good bank” which will all be published via the internet, on the Commission’s website, “as soon as confidential information and commercial secrets can be published”.
This last sentence is thought to mean as soon as the Bank of Portugal’s forensic audit on the BES web of intrigue is concluded.
Novo Banco was created after the Bank of Portugal took control of BES after the bank presented losses of €3.6 billion.
Since then, this ‘good bank’ – consisting of BES’ “healthy” customer accounts – has taken on a new brand image – one that looks alarmingly ‘down-at-heel’.
