The leader of the PCP on Sunday called it a scandal that banks can now sell savings bonds, saying such a measure shows that “the bank decides and the government executes”.
“If there was any doubt that the bank decides and the government executes it, there is evidence for it. This is a scandal. A scandal that has an advantage in spite of everything: demonstrating in practice that the government has no difficulty protecting the interests of economic groups,” said Paulo Raimundo in a speech to journalists in Ribeira Grande, on the sidelines of a meeting with the Agricultural Association of São Miguel, in the Azores.
The PCP secretary-general also warned that “when it comes to issues of economic interests, it is not just the government that defends them”, as “PSD, IL and Chega are all aligned” in the same defence.
Savings certificates (CA) will also be able to be subscribed in the physical networks (branches) and digital networks of banks, together with CTT and Espaços do Cidadão when selling this savings product.
The expansion of the CA sales network had already been defended and is now being carried out through the diploma that suspended the sale of E series certificates and created the F series, with a lower interest rate, but which the government justifies as a measure that is part part of “sound management of public debt”.
The base rate of the CA series E, which was put on the market between 2017 and until 2 June 2023, follows the evolution of the three-month Euribor and the calculation formula cannot result in a value lower than 0% and higher than 3.5% plus a permanent premium of up to 1%.
The maximum term for holding these securities was 10 years.
The base interest rate of the new F-series also varies according to the three-month Euribor and is a maximum of 2.5% plus a permanent premium of a maximum of 1.75%.
The suspension of the E series and its replacement with the new one led to several criticisms from the opposition, namely the BE and the PCP, with the communists asking for an urgent parliamentary hearing of the Secretary of State for Finance, with the result that understanding that it was “a favor the government was doing the bank”.
A position rejected by the Secretary of State for Finance, João Nuno Mendes, in a statement to journalists on Saturday, in which he responded to criticism and stated that “no concessions were made to the bank”.
On Saturday, the PCP secretary-general said today that “the bank commands and the government executes,” adding that the Treasury Secretary’s justification that “there was no concession whatsoever to the bank” was “a joke.”
Source: DN
