Montepio with €18 million losses in 2020

Portugal’s mutual bank Montepio Geral recorded a net loss of almost €17.9 million in 2020 after record losses of 3408 million in 2019.

ThE 2019 impairments were largely down to the bank’s devaluation at that the time, however the 2020 losses are not to do with bank impairments, but rather to do with a deterioration in the institution’s own capital situation.
The accountants, PwC emphasised this situation for the bank, which is led by Pedro Leitão, and thinks that the value of €1.5Bn that the bank thinks it is worth is excessive.
PwC says that the bank has already accepted impairments of €800 million and the auditor has other reservations because of deferred taxes of €867 million that the auditor says are overvalued on the bank’s balance sheet.
In a message to its members, the bank’s president Virgílio Lima said that the current losses are down to external forces arising from the unfavourable (economic) context (from the pandemic), particularly those in the financial markets which had a substantial reflection on the provisions worth €34 million that had to be set aside at the end of 2020 due to the continued fall in interest rates to levels of around zero and even negative.”
The bank also refers to a reduction by €20.8 million in other business exploration results as a result of a devaluation in its property portfolio which also impacted its final results.
Montepio’s accounts for 2020 will now go forward to a vote at the general members meeting called for 17 May.