Manuel Lemos: “Holy Houses of Mercy are not saving Montepio. They are only entering with one thousand euros each”

Lisbon’ Santa Casa da Misericórdia (Holy House of Mercy) will enter Montepio’s capital, but it will not do so alone. Other holy houses of Mercy will do the same, but not all of them. “We will be lucky if half of them enter Montepio’s capital”, states Manuel Lemos, to ECO, adding that at most, each institution should only apply one thousand euros. The Holy Houses’ Union president highlights, therefore, that this investment will not be used to save the bank.

Manuel Lemos states, in a phone interview to ECO, that “there is a great misunderstanding” when speaking of investments up to 10 thousand euros from other holy houses of Mercy. “If we had a lot of money… but holy houses are very decapitalized”, stated the president of the Union of Holy Houses.

The president states that the position of the Union is merely residual and that each holy house will enter Montepio on its own: “if 200 holy houses enter the bank, out of around 400, we will be lucky”, he stated. “We are talking about 200 thousand euros”, a much smaller contribution than what has been discussed.

According to Manuel Lemos, that amount will assure that a social bank will be created, and it will not be used to achieve a profit. “We are telling people and political representatives that it is good for Portugal to have a social economy bank. We are not saving Montepio, nor entering Montepio’s capital to have a place on the bank”.

There are holy houses producing wine, cattle, jams, olive oil. That is social economy. That is why we need to resort to the Portuguese banking, to have a bank that understands that the solidarity sector in Portugal is of key importance in helping people. We are not requesting money to purchase yachts.

Tomás Correia, chairman of Associação Mutualista Montepio Geral, has stated, in an interview to RTP3, that Lisbon’s Santa Casa da Misericórdia and a few dozen other holy houses should invest around 48 million euros to purchase a 2% stake in the bank. But entering the financial institution’s capital should happen gradually, according to an official source from Lisbon’s Santa Casa da Misericórdia to ECO. Initially, Lisbon’s Santa Casa should enter the institution with less than 20 million for 1% of the bank. The remaining 1% (that is, 30 million) should be acquired by other Holy Houses and social institutions.

New administration of Caixa Económica Montepio takes office this Wednesday

Carlos Tavares and his team will take office in Caixa Económica Montepio Geral this Wednesday, ECO ascertained. This means that the outgoing chairman since last December, José Félix Morgado, will have his last day as the leader of the bank this Tuesday.