On November 15, 2012, the Governor of the Bank of Portugal (BoP) referred to the former finance minister, Vitor Gaspar, “a draft decision” on the Banif. This was, according to Carlos Costa, “one of the critical issues in the negotiations” for the completion of the sixth review of the troika. Addressing the situation of Banif, and urgently, explained the governor in the letter, “it is necessary to positively complete this evaluation.”
In this letter, Costa defends an injection of 1, 4 billion euros of public money in the bank. And consider that this is the best solution – apart they were, by Gaspar, the chances of liquidation or nationalization. Left over another: the resolution. But, in the long exposure of the governor, this is considered a disadvantageous option, not only have never been tested as to cause more risk to the financial system. Interestingly, this was the option favored by even responsible for a much larger bank, BES, a year and a half later. And now, in December 2015 for the same Banif …
Vítor Gaspar reacted “with surprise.” Not only the amounts in question, but also the “risk” that the governor pointed to the hypothesis resolution. Former Finance Minister of the previous government PSD / CDS reacted negatively to the BoP position to be “considerably limiting the options to the state have”. Gaspar challenged with a fine irony between the lines, to the interpretation that the governor had the constitutional powers of the Government and supervisor. And cast a razor-sharp phrase: “The use of public financing (…) does assume a working prevention system.” That is, the BoP failed Banif, whether to recapitalize the bank
But the point that it is today even more current is what Gaspar would stress:. Banif was, in the view of boP at the time, “a viable credit institution.” Gaspar hesitated and sent 21 questions to the governor. But was Carlos Costa attest to this viability. Without this, public capitalization would have been impossible.
The rest is known. The government injected 1.1 thousand million euros in Banif, 16 January 2013. Now, three years later, the bank ended up having another government was forced to inject some three additional billion.
Antonio Varela who was the administrator Gaspar invited to represent the state in the administration of Banif, confirmed Thursday to Members of the inquiry committee, who expressed doubts about the viability of the bank to the former minister, before accepting the job.
Varela did not hesitate to qualify the bank found that time and where the state invested. Banif “private” in 2012, “was a bank very, very bad, it was a bad bank.” I had a “wrong strategy” which depended on “completely disparate investments,” a “lending policy with very high exposure to real estate.” And more: “There was no computer system, had no risk assessment”
In summary:. “It was difficult because we did not went wrong What escusava was that had gone so badly..” However, Varela, who recently left the BoP, believes that the state had their hands tied when it injected public capital (the previous government) and when he was grappling with the resolution (current government).
The greatest responsibility attributed to the European institutions – DG Comp, European Commission and ECB. They are, in his words, “institutions that are far from democratic scrutiny.” And Banif, as most Portuguese banks, represent very little “. We are talking about peanuts to these entities”
In Brussels and Frankfurt, ensures there is a “thought almost cynical,” which translates into a shrug of the shoulders. “the Portuguese that there have problems, they were that arranged them that solve”
Especially when Christmas approaches, as it was the case with Banif, whose resolution was decided on 20 December. “The European institutions want to extend the Christmas holidays.” And strengthened the note. “It’s feeling revolt by such situations I decided to give this note.”
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