New CGD chairman: who are the candidates?
António Domingues has resigned. Although it will only take effects by the end of December, names for who might succeed him will be presented this week. Find out who might be in for a treat.
Six members of the administration of the public bank have resigned, after António Domingues has presented his resignation, which will take effect on the end of December. But before that, the government will present their plan B for the new chairman of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), and there are three names appointed to potentially replace Domingues as the head of the public bank.
António Costa, Portuguese prime minister, has stated today that “this week, we will present the person to head Caixa Geral de Depósitos”, adding he “will not speculate over names”, since, he points out, whoever is chosen will have to go through the process of being approved by the government and the Single Supervisory Mechanism.
"Very soon, for analysis by the Single Supervisory Mechanism, there will be someone designated to take on the duties of chairman of CGD, namely to continue with the business and recapitalization plans that have already been approved.”
However, there are three names that stand out from the crowd: Macedo, Amado and Tavares.
Paulo Macedo is one of the main candidates. The former minister and former vice-chairman of Banco Comercial Português (BCP) was one of the alternatives to Domingues in case he were to leave CGD due to being unwilling to hand in income declarations, as was the case. Macedo has a lot of experience form having worked several years in the Portuguese bank BCP. He is someone widely accepted by the government, although they had other plans for the former governor. Portuguese newspaper Público has recently pointed out that António Costa would rather have Paulo Macedo be one of the next vice-governors of the Bank of Portugal. But with Domingues out of the picture, he might be the safe bet for CGD.
Aside from Macedo, there is another person from the BCP has been appointed for CGD: Nuno Amado, chief executive of the largest private Portuguese bank. Amado has recently stood by the existence of a public bank, contrary to his past view: “In today’s context, I believe we should have a public bank. This was not my point of view before, but it is now”.
The other name brought forward for the CGD is Carlos Tavares. Both Macedo and Tavares were names that have been circling around political and banking hallways as potential successors for Domingues. However, when they were appointed as such, a source close to Tavares told Portuguese TV channel SIC the soon to be former-president of CMVM had not been contacted by anyone to join Caixa Geral de Depósitos.
