Novo Banco inquiry costs €3.25 million

Novo Banco has set up a team of 40 staff to organise all the paperwork requested by the inquiry and audit commissions into bad management at the bank.

The special task force, which will have to deliver around 1000 pages of documents as quickly as possible, and which will enable the parliamentary commission to examine various cases of mismanagement and allegedly selling off property assets on the cheap, will cost around €3.25 million.
In a communiqué sent to the press on 30 December, Novo Banco confirmed that the special task force of 40 staff had been set up under the supervision of the bank’s CEO António Ramalho in order to be able to “respond as quickly as possible to all the requests from the MPs sitting on the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission or to any other matters that could arise in the coming months”.
This includes an audit that is being carried out by Deloitte under the supervision of the Tribunal de Contas or Public Audit Commission.
Dubbed “Project 31 March” the task force will also be supported by executive administrators, Mark Bourke, Rui Fontes and Luisa Soares da Silva, as well as involving the managers of some 12 departments at the bank.
“This project” states the bank, “ has arisen to meet the flow of documentation that is expected to be required, with the aim of ensuring the timely delivery of all requests, from the parliamentary inquiry commission or the special audit requested by the Portuguese Parliament – the responsibility of auditors Deloitte – the Resolution Fund and the Tribunal de Contas, to avoid any delay for the 31 March and thereby enable the fulfilment of international contracts and commitments for the capitalisation of the bank.”
I fact, the inquiry commission is to call around 200 names to do with the Novo Banco inquiry case to respond to questions from the commissioners and will include former finance minister Mário Centeno, former governor of the Bank of Portugal Carlos Costa and current CEO António Ramalho.
The inquiry will focus on the period between 2000 and 2018 and without a doubt will be for Portugal the banking inquiry of the century. The final report of the findings is not expected to be published until the end of August.