Investment bank will be ‘success’ despite labour pain
The Banco Português de Fomento was created in 2020 to promote the modernisation of companies and the economic development of the country, but still has no chairman of the board of directors.
Portugal’s minister of the economy on Monday said that the Banco de Fomento (Investment bank) “will be a success” and said that the start-up is suffering from the “labour pains” due to interruptions caused by the pandemic and the political crisis.
“[The Banco de Fomento] will be a success, these are the labour pains, let’s say, of the birth,” said António Costa Silva, who took part in a debate moderated by journalist Anselmo Crespo, as part of the CNN Portugal Summit, along with the president of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Paulo Macedo, the CEO of Altice Portugal, Ana Figueiredo, and economist António Nogueira Leite.
The Banco Português de Fomento was created in 2020 to promote the modernisation of companies and the economic development of the country, but still has no chairman of the board of directors.
Costa Silva recalled that the institution’s start-up was marked by interruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the political crisis prompted by the fall of the government.
“We are also a country of many bench coaches, […] But we will find the solution and it will work,” the minister assured.
Last week, the cabinet approved a diploma that equates the rules for recruitment of the directors of Banco de Fomento to the general regime for credit institutions, moving away from the rules provided for in the public manager statute.
The previous regime provided that the rules related to the public manager statute were applicable, which are now “removed” so that the Banco de Fomento’s directors “may be in the same competitive conditions” in the recruitment regarding the other entities with which it is equated “whether in the public or private sector.
On 12 May, Economy Minister António Costa Silva said that the choice of the chairman of Banco de Fomento is “a vital issue”, announcing that the government was discussing releasing the restrictions imposed on hiring.
In July 2021, the government announced the suspension of the appointment of Vítor Fernandes as chairman of Banco do Fomento to avoid “controversy” within the institution, said then Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira.
The former director of Novo Banco was mentioned in documents from the Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the Cartão Vermelho (Red Card) operation, in which the chairman of Promovalor and former president of Benfica Luís Filipe Vieira is a defendant.
