Ricardo Salgado heard by Swiss supervisor of Banque Privée – publico

                 

                         
                     

                         
                     

                         

                 

 
                         

Nearly nine months after he started the insolvency proceedings of the Banque Privée Espírito Santo, the FINMA, the Swiss supervisory authority, heard on Thursday the former president of BES, Ricardo Salgado, and will draw Chairman of the GES, Antonio Ricciardi, both non-executive directors of the financial institution.

                     

                          The inquiries Salgado elapsed since the early morning until the late afternoon in the Securities Market Commission (CMVM), in Lisbon, in the framework of international cooperation. It is believed that Salgado can return to the CMVM tomorrow.

In addition to Ricardo Salgado, other family members, as Antonio Ricciardi, 93, should be heard by FINMA, which still oversees the action of José Manuel Espírito Santo Silva and Manuel Espírito Santo Silva, who also occupied places in the management of Banque Privée. Everything indicates that the Swiss authority is seeking to establish the institution’s role in the distribution of securities and financial products GES, although the Economic Daily link the inquiry to a criminal complaint filed by a customer against executive and non-executive of the Swiss bank administration, despite the supervisor (FINMA) not have the jurisdiction to investigate crimes.

The process of “insolvency” against Banque Privée, which began in September 2014, were brought to protect depositors due to “indebtedness” of the bank in voluntary liquidation since July 2014 (prior to reinforce the funds, Banque Privée Espírito Santo sold relevant parts of the portfolio of its customers to Compagnie Bancaire Helvétique). At the time, FINMA admitted there was “able to repay quickly and completely the privileged deposits to its customers.”

The decision of the administration and the controlling shareholder, the Holy Spirit Group, advancing to the settlement has led to a revaluation of the assets of Banque Privée, so as to constitute a volume of provisions that allow respond to costs and ensure the continued operation. At the time, in September 2014, the FINMA explained that “the capital of the Swiss bank was not enough” and recapitalize the institution with recourse to shareholders was also not possible, since the GES companies are insolvent. The insolvency manager now wants to ensure the payment of deposits to 100,000 Swiss francs (about 83,000 euros).