Gabriel Bernardino will be the new president of CMVM

  • ECO News
  • 4 October 2021

The former head of the European insurance supervisor will replace Gabriela Figueiredo Dias, whose term ended last June.

Gabriel Bernardino will be the new president of Portugal’s Securities Market Commission, replacing Gabriela Figueiredo Dias, whose mandate ended at the end of June. According to what ECO knows, the name will be proposed by the Ministry of Finance to the Commission for Recruitment and Selection for Public Administration (CRESAP).

The former chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) had been invited in June to lead the Portuguese capital markets regulator, as reported by ECO, but the process failed to make progress during the summer.

In the last few days, there have been new developments, with the Ministry of Finance moving forward with the process. Gabriela Figueiredo Dias, who replaced Carlos Tavares in 2015, had already stated that she did not intend to remain in the position beyond the end of her term, which already happened three months ago. Gabriel Bernardino’s name will be proposed this week to CRESAP. After the assessment made by this entity and of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Portuguese Parliament, the nomination will be approved by the Council of Ministers.

The CMVM’s future president made a career in insurance and has extensive international experience. In March he finished his second term as president of EIOPA, after a long career at the Insurance Institute of Portugal (now ASF), where he joined after graduating in Mathematics at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. ECO contacted Gabriel Bernardino, who did not wish to make any comment. It also contacted the Ministry of Finance, which has so far not replied.

The CMVM currently has only three members on the board of directors, the legal minimum, after Filomena Oliveira, who was the vice-president, resigned in May 2019, after six months in the position, alleging “personal reasons”. In September 2020, it was director João Gião’s turn to resign “for family reasons”, returning to his duties at the European Stability Mechanism.

Gabriel Bernardino will serve a single six-year term, as provided for in the framework law for regulators.