The Parliamentary Group of the PS has asked the Banco de Portugal to urgently forward to the Assembly of the Republic the documentation on the involvement of former governor Carlos Costa in connection with BIC Portugal/EuroBic.
In a request to the central bank, through the Parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee, the Socialists believe that after the Prime Minister answered the PSD’s questions on this issue, “However, the fundamentals that motivated the time and the manner in which the former governor of Banco de Portugal intervened in a case with known connections and such sensitive temporality”.
The PS believes that António Costa’s replies to the PSD “should arouse the concerns of the Assembly of the Republic” as “they indicate that there was a risky intervention by the Bank of Portugal that violated the agreement between BPI’s shareholders in April 2016”, resulting in the departure of Isabel dos Santos from BPI’s shareholder structure and the strengthening of the position of Spain’s CaixaBank.
In July 2017, BIC Portugal was rebranded as EuroBic, after a court ruling forced a brand change.
The Socialists are asking the central bank now headed by Mário Centeno to provide parliament with information “as a matter of urgency” on “the nature and content of the intervention of the former governor of Banco de Portugal Carlos Costa in the EuroBic process, with a focus on the facts that occurred in the week between April 10 and 17, 2016”.
The PS bank also asks for “information on the technical foundations, supporting documentation and correspondence exchanged in relation to this intervention, namely on the time and manner” in which it took place.
In the text, dated Wednesday, the subscribers refer that on April 10, 2016, “after an intense negotiation process, the shareholders of BPI publicly announced that they had reached an agreement that guaranteed that Banco BPI would solve the problem of exceeding the limit of large risks and thus avoided sanctions that would endanger the bank”, only that “a week later, however, the agreement collapsed”.
“Three days after the announcement of the agreement, on April 13, 2016, the government became aware that ‘Eng.ª Isabel dos Santos was questioning the agreement reached by BPI’s shareholders’ and that ‘this was the result of a intervention of the Governor of Banco de Portugal in relation to EuroBic'”, they add.
For the PS, it was “clarified that the ‘loyal, direct and informal – and without publicity’ contact between the Prime Minister and the then Governor of Banco de Portugal was only aimed at sharing knowledge about the impending implosion of the shareholder agreement and a analysis of the ‘serious risks to the stability of the financial system’ arising from this failure”.
The only thing that remains unclear is the intervention of Carlos Costa in this process, which the socialists believe will have jeopardized the shareholder agreement at BPI.
“It is important to know what new or urgent facts or what result of a deadline or process at that time caused an intervention by the governor of the Banco de Portugal, Carlos Costa, which jeopardized the difficult agreement between BPI shareholders”, says the request. .
The tenderers write that “Bank of Portugal has a duty to inform Parliament of the nature, content and grounds of any such intervention, as this clarification is of public interest” and admit that despite “possible limitations of banking or professional secrecy” , the bank headed by Mário Centeno “may send parliament the necessary clarifications with a report of their confidential nature”.
The request was signed by the parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, by the Vice-President of the Bank Jamila Madeira and by the Coordinator of the Socialists in the Budget and Finance Committee, Miguel Cabrita, as well as by the deputy Miguel Costa matos,
On November 23, the PSD parliament group posed 12 questions to the prime minister to clarify statements made by former Banco de Portugal governor Carlos Costa, both on the Banif resolution and on the removal of businesswoman Isabel dos Santos from BIC.
Part of the PSD’s questions were about the alleged government interference in Banco de Portugal, following Carlos Costa’s accusations revealed in the book “O Governador”.
At stake, according to the former governor and in a version contested by the prime minister (who has already announced a lawsuit against Carlos Costa for “false and abusive” statements), is a call from António Costa on April 12, 2016 in which the prime minister told him to reportedly that “one cannot mistreat the daughter of the president of a country friendly to Portugal”, in what he understood to be a request to the Bank of Portugal to pay Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos (daughter of the then president of Angola José Eduardo dos Santos) of the BIC administration.
In the comments to the PSD António Costa stated that he never took any steps with Banco de Portugal “or anyone else” in favor of Isabel dos Santos’ suitability, ensuring that he acted alone to resolve the shareholder blockade in BPI.
In a letter to parliament, the Prime Minister stressed that EuroBic was “not subject to any kind of action” by his government and that “only Banco de Portugal could assess the reasons for its intervention in defining the board of directors” of that bank, “which was never communicated publicly, nor was it disclosed” to her executive.
“At that time, there was another process involving the engineer Isabel dos Santos, this process with relevance to the stability of the financial system and the national economy, which required the utmost attention from the government: the situation of shareholder blockade verified at BPI bank,” noted the leader of the executive branch.
Source: DN
