Novo Banco fiasco: 30% of Portuguese blame Ramalho

More than 30% of Portuguese canvassed in a survey on Novo Banco blame António Ramalho, the CEO of Novo Banco, for the problems faced by the bank.

In the poll carried out by Intercampus for the newspapers ‘Negócios’ and ‘Correio da Manhã’ 44.8% believe that the Government at the time should have let Banco Espírito Santo fall and never have set up a new bank in 2014 to house its sustainable assets, but has since proved a toxic black hole which both the Portuguese banking system and tax payers have been pumping billions into ever since.
Over 30% of the Portuguese consider that the bank’s management by António Ramalho and the Government of António Costa are to blame for the state that the bank is now in.
The poll revelas that 31.4%, mostly young people, lay the blame at the door of the current Novo Banco directors that have ‘lost loads of money’ sold off assets at low prices and have forced the State to transfer lots of money.
Some 30.3% say the Government is at fault, while 24.3% state that the Bank of Portugal is to blame.
The poll comes as it was announced this week that Portugal’s department of criminal investigation DCIAP will investigate the alleged sell off of Novo Banco properties at below market prices.
The Public Ministry tells Jornal Económico that a letter was sent by the Prime Minister, António Costa ordering the suspension of the sale of further Novo Banco property portfolio assets until the investigation by the DCIAP is concluded and the findings of an audit by Deloitte are released.