Government pressures the Bank of Portugal to choose administration
Nominating a new administration for the Bank of Portugal is creating a deadlock between Carlos Costa and the government, who rejected at least a half a dozen names the governor suggested.
The Government is pressuring the Bank of Portugal (BdP) so the choice of the new administrators for the central bank complies with the gender parity criterion. A demand they are able to make, since it is the Government who nominates the administrators Carlos Costa suggests, although the Portuguese prime minister António Costa has rejected at least a dozen of names the governor submitted.
The new BdP administration the governor proposed was not accepted by the Portuguese Executive because of the gender quotas now being imposed to banks. The Government also stated the Bank of Portugal cannot have only one woman, former-MEP Elisa Ferreira, in the administration: they want two women in the administration in order to have gender parity.
This Thursday, during the Council of Ministers, two men and one woman should be nominated, leaving a fourth position waiting for the best-suited woman. During the meeting, Elisa Ferreira should be approved as vice-chairwoman of BdP. Carlos Costa has suggested another name for the administration: Ana Paula Serra, current member of BdP’s Board of Auditors and professor in Oporto’s Faculty of Economics.
