Bank of Portugal to be supervised by Finanças

A diploma has been discussed in a Council of Ministers meeting to subject the financial management of the Bank of Portugal to supervision by the General Inspectorate of Finance.

The Inspectorate already supervises services and public entities and the Government wants the Bank of Portugal to undergo the same rigours, with the exception of its role as the country’s Central Bank.

Until now, the Bank of Portugal has the status of a public legal entity, but enjoys administrative and financial autonomy, and its own assets.

The amendment included in the diploma to reform financial supervision will change the bank’s way of operating and marks a big step towards the accountability that MPs, the executive and the public have been gunning for ever since the bank’s governor, Carlos Costa, started to bail out bust banks – with disastrous results for the Treasury, the prime example being Novo Banco.