Brussels considering new national ‘promotion’ bank

The Portuguese Government is planning to set up a new national bank to provide companies with a credit line.

The outline structural design of the new bank, which forms part of the Government’s policy pledges for its first 100 days in power, is being studied by Brussels and the Bank of Portugal.
Portugal also has a major national bank – Caixa Geral de Depósitos. The Minister for the Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira announced the plan for the new bank in a parliamentary debate on the Government’s programme for its coming mandate.
He said that the Government “intends to set up a true national promotion bank” in the first 100 days of its term in office with the objective of giving companies greater access to finance.
“We will finally create a true national promotional bank by merging several financial companies owned by the Ministry of the Economy” he said.
The integration of these various financial companies into one organisation could be done by the Financial Development Institution (Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento (IFD)), a wholesale bank created to rectify failures in the market in terms of company financing and better known as a development bank.
A Ministry of the Economy official said that the “final design” was under analysis and discussion with the European Commission and the Bank of Portugal and that more information would be released over time.
Siza Vieira told MPs in parliament that: “Over the next 100 days this new institution should be set up and given sufficient resources to be made available to Portuguese companies for their (digital and technological) transformation”.
“It will also operate just like a Green Bank, supporting the investments necessary for companies in the efforts towards a carbon neutral economy and to fight climate change,” he added.