EDP to pay Bank of Portugal €2.5M fine

 In Companies, News

EDP has decided that it will not appeal against a €2.5 million fine imposed by the Bank of Portugal (BdP).

According to the newspaper Jornal de Negócios on Wednesday, EDP is accused of not complying with services payments rules which the electricity supplier said it had in operation in August of last year and registered in its accounts for the first half of 2018.
The document states that EDP had been applied an infringement process by BdP for allegedly not complying with the General Regime of Financial Credit Companies and Institutions”.
More specifically, the BdP pointed to the “activity of providing payment services (an activity legally reserved for credit institutions and similar entities” (such as banks) and the “non-compliance of BdP stipulations”.
The fine could be as much as €10 million, divided between EDP Soluções Comercias and EDP SA.
The energy company, which is the third largest in the world im terms of renewables and is led by António Mexia had said at the time that the legal regime conditioning payment services did not apply to EDP in that specific case.
Now, it has decided not to appeal against the BdP decision with the energy giant setting up “a provision worth €125 million for EDP SA and €2.2 million for EDP Commercial Solutions” according to the latest report released by the company.
Last year EDP reported profits of €519 million. Its CEO António Mexia earned €6000 per day in 2018 with a variable annual salary of €2.1 million (down 3.9%) on the previous year.