Horta Osório: NPL must be “recycled” and “sold”

  • ECO News
  • 22 June 2017

The CEO of Lloyds Bank highlights NPL is still one of the largest issues in the Portuguese financing sector. Horta Osório believes these credits should be "sold" to those who can manage them.

António Horta Osório acknowledges some progress has been made in the Portuguese financial sector. However, the CEO of Lloyds Bank states there is more to be done. Specially concerning the amount of non-performing loans (NPL), which still harms the profitability of the Portuguese banks. Those loans need to be “recycled” through a market sale and Portugal also needs to implement policies to reduce the weight of NPL in the economy.

António Horta Osório, Lloyds’ CEO. Paula Nunes / ECO

“NPL should be recycled, those assets should be sold” to people who know how to manage them, points out Horta Osório. The CEO believes this is still one of the main issues the banking sector is facing: “Portugal is far worse than Spain and than the European average”, he recalls.

"NPL should be recycled, those assets should be sold to people who know how to manage them.”

Horta Osório

Lloyds Bank CEO

Horta Osório takes the opportunity to state that government policies should take into consideration a medium term plan to “reduce the amount of debt” in the country. Therefore, “important reforms and adequate policies” need to be enforced, regardless of the improvement in the economic scenario.