BPF in remodelling plan

The top brass at Portuguese development bank Banco de Fomento is to remodel the institution that is charged with disbursing EUNextGen/RRP funds in Portugal and injects money into promising companies, including startups and consortium-led projects.

The aim is to restructure its organisation and enhance its efficiency and capacity. The bank’s Budget and Activities Plan 2023-2025 approved in July was the starting point for the remodelling that included taking on more staff.
The goal is to transform the institution led by Celeste Hagatong and Ana Carvalho into a “strong development bank, recognised by is impact, quality and timeless service”, a source at the bank told the online news service ECO.
The bank, which was created during the pandemic, has had substantial teething plans. The Minister of the Economy, António Costa Silva removed the bank’s CEO Beatriz Costa because he wasn’t happy with the bank’s performance.
“We have to improve but we have to be fair and recognise what was working and try to improve what hasn’t been working”, he said, adding “Banco de Fomento was created in the middle of a pandemic and under these very difficult circumstances provided a credit line of €9B in guarantees that supported many companies through the most difficult times”.
The problem is that in the market, despite a total shakeup in the administration, there continues to be a feeling that the institution is inefficient and slow in presenting and implementing solutions for the market and is somewhat uncommunicative.
Aware of the criticisms, the bank’s administration has approved this activities plan that aims to fulfil the promises made by the chairwoman last year.
“On the Banco de Fomento’s part, we will certainly review all (our) internal processes so that things go as swiftly as possible”, Celeste Hagatong said at the Portuguese Hotels Association Congress (Congresso da Associação de Hotelaria de Portugal) in Fátima.
The BFP has €1.5Bn of total investment from Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Programme earmarked to invest in projects and capitalise promising companies by identifying co-investment opportunities and partners. The funds are channelled through the Consolidate Programme. (€478 million venture capital to invest and €769 million to invest in capitalising companies).