Bank of Portugal gives green light to development bank’s top brass

 In Administration, Banks, News

The Bank of Portugal has finally given the green light to the appointment of the administrative board for Portugal’s new development bank Banco Português de Fomento.

However, another organisation CRESAP (Commission for Management Selection and Recruitment) also has to give the go-ahead and the names have not yet been passed on to that entity by the BdP.
The BoP, which is led by Mário Centeno, has not made any objections to the nine administrators, of which four are executives. There are also 20 directors. The management structure also foresees the appointment of more, but the list is not complete and some directors which be responsible for more than one area – whose names were submitted on 9 April to be subject to assessments that they are ‘fit and proper’ for the posts. (i.e. competent to do the job)
This is an essential step given that the Banco de Fomento, despite being a development bank and not a commercial or private bank, is subject to supervision from the regulator which in this case is the Bank of Portugal.
Furthermore, this is seen as a way to placate criticisms from some MPs, for example, as to the choice of the chairman of the new bank, Vítor Fernandes. The reason being was that he had sat on the board of Caixa, BPC and Novo Banco.
“Vítor Fernandes has had a career wholly in the banking sector,” said minister for the Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, in parliament on 10 February, pointing out that the new chairman had not taken part in decisions over the concession of credit at CGD that had been scrutinised by the commission of inquiry over reckless lending which left the State bank with hundreds of millions in outstanding and largely unrecoverable loans a decade ago.
“The appointment of executive management figures to the Banco de Fomento is subject to ‘fit and proper’ scrutiny and checks by the supervisory authorities to determine the honesty and reputation at both national and European levels”, added the minister of the Economy.