Bank of Portugal blames auditors for BES debacle

Frequently “blamed” for failing to identify the rot eating away at Banco Espírito Santo before it was too late, the Bank of Portugal is now attempting to pass the buck and blame auditors KPMG.

If the so-called ‘administrative procedure’ is successful, KPMG could be fined up to €2.5 million, say reports.

KPMG however is contesting the accusation, saying the institute led by Carlos Costa always had access to the information that KPMG auditors were using.

Indeed the decision to accuse KPMG’s Portuguese operation has not been “consensual within the bank”, adds Público.

There are those who “think it lacks foundation” precisely because the bank “will have had total knowledge of what was going on, and was inclusively in possession of documents sent by KPMG” on, for example, the parlous state of accounts at BES Angola.

The nitty gritty of BdP’s administrative procedure centres on alleged failings during the years 2011 to 2014 (when BES finally imploded, causing economic ricochets which are still reverberating through the country’s financial system).

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