Novobanco/BES have received €8.3Bn from State since 2008

Banco Espírito Santo and its replacement Novobanco are the financial institutions that have most benefitted from public funds since 2008.

Over 14 years they have received around €8.3Bn from the Portuguese State, almost 40% of the total that tax payers spent on bailouts to the banking sector, according to the State public companies auditor and public spending watchdog Tribunal de Contas. If BES had been allowed to fail in 2014, it would have cost tax payers €11Bn.
At the end of September, the auditor warned that the Portuguese public may not have yet seen the final bill for Novobanco, taking into account the existence of a capital backstop mechanism of up to €1.6Bn and the lawsuits underway between the Resolution Fund and the bank in the Court of Arbitration.
Following BES/Novobanco comes BPN which was nationalised in 2008, and received 27.9% of the total public financial support (€6.1Bn), and Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) that cost €5.5Bn, around 25% of the total.
From 2008-2021 Portugal’s banking system bailouts totalled €29.6Bn compared to revenues of €7.5Bn “creating an unfavourable balance for taxpayers of €22.05Bn”, states the Tribunal de Contas in its report into the State’s public finances which was delivered this week to the Portuguese parliament, and which has 49 recommendations.
Other banks that also needed handouts were Banif (wound up in 2015) which has cost the taxpayer €3Bn, BPP (founded by João Rendeiro) which set the taxpayer back €268 million, whereas handouts to BCP and BPI brought in profits for the State in the long term of €919 million and €168 million respectively from Contingent Capital Bonds which had a high interest rate and were underwritten by the State during the troika period. (2011-2014)