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João Moreira Rato, former financial administrator of Novo Banco, confirms that Pedro Siza Vieira, then a lawyer for Linklaters and current Minister of Economy, participated in meetings of the bank’s board of directors on the sale of the insurance company Tranquilidade to the Apollo fund. Regarding the BES resolution, he says that the team was surprised by the information that the institution was going to be the target of this measure.
“Our main Linklaters counterpart was António Soares”, already on the Tranquilidade issue “it was Pedro Siza Vieira who was involved,” Moreira Rato said at a hearing held this Thursday, March 18, at the Novo Banco investigation commission. when questioned by Duarte Alves, a PCP deputy, about this operation.
According to the former head of Novo Banco, “Siza Vieira should have been summoned at one or another meeting of the board of directors due to the purchase agreement” of the insurer.
Tranquilidade was sold to Apollo for 40 million euros. This entity ended up selling the insurer for 600 million euros to the Generali group in 2019.
“There was a clear erosion of credibility with clients and, in September, there would be important renegotiations with companies,” Moreira Rato said, recalling that there was pressure from the sector regulator to recapitalize Tranquilidade.
The former director of Novo Banco said the concern was to obtain a position of non-opposition from the Bank of Portugal. And “we got it,” he said.
The resolution surprised the team
Regarding the BES resolution, Moreira Rato explained that, on “August 1, when they called us to inform us of what was happening, we were prepared to discuss options for the private recapitalization of the bank. At that time, we were surprised. The resolution and The details were very vague, it was a very general presentation “, in a meeting chaired by the then governor of the Bank of Portugal Carlos Costa. The team was then asked to be available during the next few days for whatever was necessary.
At the time, he said, the regulator did not release new elements. “He just told us what was going to happen,” he said.
Regarding the problem of the corporate credit portfolio, Cecília Meireles, deputy of the CDS, affirmed that “the The credit default arose after the resolution and the default did not arise until then due to restructuring on restructuring, asking if Novo Banco’s management was aware of the problems with the defaulter.
“There were some situations, but at that stage it was not one of our concerns,” João Moreira Rato responded, noting that there was “awareness that the bank’s portfolio of companies could eventually have problems.”
João Moreira Rato is the fourth name that is heard in the parliamentary investigation commission of Novo Banco. Before that, it was the turn of João Costa Pinto, former chairman of the Banco de Portugal audit council, Luís Costa Ferreira, director of the Banco de Portugal supervision department, and Pedro Duarte Neves, former deputy governor, to go to Parliament. under this initiative.
(News in update).
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