Parliament publishes redacted Novo Banco audit
Deloitte's audit of BES/Novo Banco management refers to the period between 2000 and 2018, has been ongoing since last year and should have been completed in July but it was only delivered last week.
Deloitte’s audit report to BES/Novo Banco is available today on the website of the Portuguese Parliament, but matters considered confidential have been removed.
The report is available on the Budget and Finance Committee part of the website, Lusa saw.
Deloitte’s audit of BES/Novo Banco management refers to the period between 2000 and 2018 (i.e., covering both the period before and after the BES resolution and creation of Novo Banco), has been ongoing since last year and should have been completed in July but it was only delivered last week.
According to the ministry of finance, the report shows net losses of €4.042 billion at Novo Banco (between 4 August 2014, one day after BES’ resolution, and 31 December 2018) and “describes a number of serious shortcomings and deficiencies” in BES’ lending and investment in financial assets and real estate until 2014.
In a press conference, the CEO of Novo Banco said that 95% of the losses referred to in the Deloitte audit were due to assets prior to 2014, i.e., that belonged to BES and passed over to Novo Banco in the resolution. He also stated that the audit “confirms the transparent and competitive way” in which Novo Banco has been recovering its balance sheet, mainly through the sale of asset portfolios.
The newspaper Público reported today that the audit found that the management of Novo Banco did not inform the Resolution Fund which, on two occasions, was advised by the bank’s compliance department to proceed with the sale of asset portfolios involving the company Alantra (represented in Portugal by a former advisor to Ricardo Salgado, Rita Barrosa).
According to the newspaper, this fact was only reported to the Resolution Fund in June of this year, almost two years later following the Deloitte audit. In the report, the auditor also reveals that they were unable to confirm or exclude any links between the buyers of Novo Banco’s asset portfolios and companies close to the bank itself or Lone Star (the US fund that owns 75% of Novo Banco).
