Most parties criticize it, but Costa assumes no errors – publico

 
         

                 

                         
                     

                         
                     

                         

                 

 
 

Over nearly six-hour hearing, Carlos Costa distributes blame for everyone involved in the Banif process. Were governments (previous and current) that made the decisions. “The Bank of Portugal advises not decide or impose.” It was the European authorities now blocked, now demonstrated “ill will”. The administration of Banif was unable. “After three years we were not able to approve a restructuring plan.” And even the other central bank executives will have to answer for themselves, because the governor is not present some “detail issues”.

the exercise was so complicated that, since the edge of the end, John Adams, the CDS, summed it up in an apparent contradiction: “All that was the fault of the European authorities in the first round became the responsibility of management. This together makes no sense … “. Before, since Mariana Mortágua, the Left Bloc, had expressed the frustration of MPs: “I’m trying to understand what it is that the Bank of Portugal served in this process. But it is to be very difficult. “

Michael James, PCP, summarize in two drawn the impression that caused you to provide the maximum responsible for the supervision of the national bank, the answer to the deputies investigating more recent fall of a “systemic bank”. “The Bank of Portugal is a kind of banks reporting agency,” blurted the deputy, before the smile – nothing mocking – the banking regulator. Before, the same deputy had compared the governor to a traffic warden who blames his superior (the ECB) for accidents that happen to him.

It was, however, the PS came as heavy attack to the governor . Not to be the most powerful, or even more acutely, but to be demonstrating an objective. John Galamba began his inquiry with a revealing question this way:. “What is it considers to be a serious failure of supervision” asked

The question has a subtext. The only hypothesis, however vague and remote, dismissal of a Governor of the Bank of Portugal (which is statutorily nonremovable) is foreseen only on the regulator organic law as follows: “A Governor may be removed from office if they fail to fulfills the conditions required to exercise the same or has committed serious misconduct “.

Galamba not received a direct answer, but it was perceived by its insistence on a specific point, which foresees the possibility of claiming the” serious failure “at a particular time in the history of Banif:. the end of 2012, when Carlos Costa convinced Vítor Gaspar to inject 1,100 million euros in a bank whose viability was challenged

Gaspar revealed” surprise “as the PUBLIC already reported, and resisted the idea, but eventually sign with your name on the decision. Carlos Costa gave him all responsibility. Galamba insisted: where were the numbers that proved the viability of Banif, necessary condition for public capitalization was legal to luza of European legislation? “The Bank of Portugal does not invent numbers,” said Costa, already unwell. “Do not invent numbers, but invents financial viabilities where they do not exist,” responded the deputy PS.

If the criticism of the Socialists are not surprising, even in light of the much debated will replace the governor was interesting to note the almost unanimously that raises among the deputies the idea that Carlos Costa has bills to pay for what happened. To the PSD, the party less criticized Carlos Costa, began his speech with a rhetorical question: “Where was the supervision?” He asked Marques Guedes

There is still less than a year, CDS and. PSD made the defense of Carlos Costa, this same Parliament, in this very room 1, when they heard him at the time of renewal, by the previous government. But that was before the resolution of Banif.

Today, CDS leaves no room for doubt about his position. John Adams, in two rounds of questions has led Carlos Costa to a dead end. First, interrogating persistently responsible for financial oversight of the absence of written records, documentary, . decisions as important as the suspension of counterparty status vis the ECB After highlighting the story that the governor decides to tell is not accompanied by any factual support, “Where is it written that the board of directors of the strategy was wrong? “he asked. in hundreds of emails and letters exchanged between the Bank of Portugal, the European institutions and the Government, it is rare to find (only in the final stage) any criticism of the governor to the team led by Jorge Tomé and Luis Amado.