CGD hikes online transfer fees by 60%

 In Banks, News

Portugal’s state-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos is to slap a 83 cents charge on all online bank transfers.

The charge represents a 60% hike on current charges of 52 cents that the bank’s customer s currently pay.

The public bank led by Paulo Macedo has rarely been off the headlines over the past two weeks as it is currently at the centre of a parliamentary enquiry as to why successive senior bank directors sanctioned ultra high-risk multi-million euro loans to a variety of businessmen and companies whose loans subsequently went bad and put the bank’s very survival in jeopardy.

After receiving a capital injection from the Government and failing to significantly dent its debts from a real estate assets road show, the bank is now aiming to raise money from service charges.

Nevertheless, CGD profit results have improved since the last quarter of 2017 from €99 million and €68 million in Q1 of 2018 to €175 million in Q4 of last year.

From 1 May, customers will pay 83.20 cents for each SEPA+ transfer via home-banking. The change in transfer price will affect all CGD customers who have not signed up to CGD account packages.

These mean accounts with fixed monthly costs introduced in September 2017 and in addition to a fixed monthly cost include a raft of services such as account maintenance, credit or debit card and a specific number of online transfers depending on the package chosen.