The dark side of the Box – Jornal de Negócios – Portugal

There are those who can find that out there no one note. But the note issued yesterday by the DBRS shows how the controversy around the public bank, and the resignation of António Domingues is a nail in the effort to recover the credibility of the country among investors.

How do you explain that the manager who outlined a plan for the recapitalisation and restructuring of the largest Portuguese bank, which needs an injection of 5,000 million, already backed by the ECB and the European Commission, exits out the door at the end of three months without the put into practice? In Portugal, it is the policy. On Wall Street, in the City of London or in Frankfurt is mind-boggling, it raises suspicion and undermines trust.

Would be less important if the recapitalisation operation was not dependent on the placement of one billion euros in perpetual bonds with private investors. But without this part, everything else is threatened, because it happens to have the seal of State aid. Incidentally, let to hinder the operation may have significant costs. If “no” wins in the constitutional referendum in Italy on next Sunday, the waters in the Euro Zone bond market will become even more murky, making a trip to the market that already appears challenging.

Another question emerges: after this posted, how many top managers in the financial sector will be available to accept the place left vacant by Domingues?

The opinion of DBRS is worth what it is worth, but it shows how this process has weakened the Box. No one doubts that the news of the “negative surveillance” leaves the frightened depositors. The responsibility of the Government, who does not know how to manage the dossier. Responsibility of the opposition, he subordinated his political interests to the national importance of preserving the solution found to the Box, and the Box itself. Responsibility of António Domingues, who should have sought to deflate the controversy, to bring together and not harass the support needed to carry on the recapitalization.

Who fed this fire forgets that it does not burn only in the Box. The public bank, the largest, is the reference for the entire sector. When, in the financial crisis, it was necessary to reopen the market to the Portuguese banks, it was always the case to move forward first. Although in a better state, the financial system remains fragile: it is the second least capitalized of the Euro Zone, ahead only of the Italian.

there are reasons to justify why the topic should have been handled with tweezers, intelligence and good sense, and not as a dupe in a recess of the policy. We believe that to be so hereafter.