Finance minister: solution for former BES clients includes public guarantee because the State failed

The Finance minister Mário Centeno stated today the Government supports a solution for BES former clients and it will award them a public guarantee, because State supervisory authorities failed to protect those investors.

“The supervisory and regulating systems did not work” which caused missellings, stated Mário Centeno to justify the Government’s involvement in the mechanism which will partially compensate those who suffered losses in BES. That involvement will be made namely by a State guarantee, and that could cause losses for the upcoming State Budget.

When asked about those who are not included in the solution (such as emigrants, for example), Centeno stated “the State cannot replace all losses” and that “the State’s action has to be balanced”. The Finance minister also said: “Public guarantees must only be used as long as they can be justified by the State’s existent responsibilities”.

The State secretary for Finance stands by the compensation mechanism, emphasizing the Government decided to move forward with it because it is now known that the State failed in protecting investors: “There is a sense of public responsibility, because the State should have done things it didn’t (…). The State failed”, Mourinho Félix stated.

As for the public guarantee, Mourinho Félix considered the risk of executing it is very small. “We don’t expect the guarantee to add up to the State’s obligations”, adding that he assesses the “risk is much smaller than the loss of trust implied in these practices”. He further stated the guarantee “is not equivalent to expenses” and that he believes that even if it is executed, the indemnities fund will be able to repay the Portuguese State.