The Bank of Portugal (BdP) guaranteed this Tuesday that minimized the “use of public resources” at Novo Banco, ensuring that “safeguarding the public interest”following an audit by the Court of Auditors (TdC) criticized the performance Of the entity
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In a statement released this Tuesday, the central bank indicated that in the response it sent to the TdC “in the framework of the contradictory exercise” it presented “several indications that the actions of public entities” in this matter “safeguarding the public interest” Y “promoted the minimization of the use of public resources”thanks to “contractual mechanisms agreed upon in the sale of Novo Banco” and the “effective public controlin particular through the action of the Resolution Fund in the execution of the agreements”.
EITHER Court of Auditors said on Tuesday that the State and the Bank of Portugal did not guarantee the “effective public control” of Novo Banco, therefore they did not safeguard the “minimization of the use of public financial support” to the bank.
In response, the BdP defended that “in the resolution of the BES, in the sale of Novo Banco and in the public control of the execution of the purchase contracts, the public interest was safeguarded, duly evaluated in all the dimensions established by law, even in terms of minimizing the use of the resources of the Resolution Fund”.
The entity headed by Mário Centeno considers that, “in its analysis, the Court of Auditors used a own and restrictive definition of public interest that does not correspond to the concept provided for in the law, not even to the definition used in the first assessment of the Court of Auditorspublished in 2021″, adding that, in the audit, this entity “assesses the safeguarding of the public interest exclusively on the criteria of minimizing the use of the resources of the Resolution Fund and not on the various criteria that, under the terms of the law, are in the public interest“.
“We should not go into a semi-panic”, says Centeno about the risk of an economic crisis, from which he admits that he cannot exclude himself
According to the BdP, “the evaluation carried out does not take into account the fact that through the financial resources made available by the Resolution Fund” having “ensured the continuity of the financial services provided by BES and, subsequently, by Novo Banco”.
Source: Observadora
