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Mário Centeno, former Minister of Finance and current Governor of the Bank of Portugal, is a shareholder in seven Portuguese companies, including Benfica and Galp.
The news is advanced by the weekly Expresso, which cites the declaration of interests that the leader of the Bank of Portugal had to deliver to the European Central Bank (ECB). In addition to Benfica and Galp, Centeno also has shares in Pharol (ex PT), NOS, REN, Navigator and Martifer.
In the past, the relationship with Benfica had caused headaches for the then Minister of Finance. Mário Centeno was in the news twice after it was revealed that he asked the club incarnate for tickets to go to see football matches in the company of his son from the stage of the Estádio da Luz.
Mário Centeno always justified the requests with the need to safeguard his safety. The Lisbon Department of Criminal Investigation and Action (DIAP) even opened an investigation and the Ministry of Finance was subject to searches on suspicion that Centeno had committed a crime of undue obtaining of advantages. The investigation would eventually be shelved, after the Public Ministry concluded “due to the non-verification of the crime of obtaining an undue benefit or any other.”
Between August 2014 and December 2018, Novo Banco had losses of 225.1 million euros with the economic group of Luís Filipe Vieira, which is one of the largest debtors of the former BES.
In the same Expresso, when asked if these investments are limited in a file that is in the supervisor, the official source of the Bank of Portugal limited itself to referring to formal aspects of the process. “The entire procedure for completing and publishing said declaration of interests was subject to prior monitoring and validation by the Banco de Portugal and the ECB competent bodies in matters of ethics and conduct.”
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