In another black week for Novo Banco - the so-called “good bank” that Portugal desperately needs to sell - media reports have exposed a catastrophic ‘mistake’ that saw thousands of euros transferred erroneously to former clients; news that the bank “stands to lose 838 million euros in Angola” and a censure by the IMF on the way the bank’s accounts were made to look ‘better’ by retroactively dumping €2 billion-worth of senior bonds.
With no news on any ‘firmly-committed prospective buyers’ in sight, the first three days of the week could hardly have looked worse.
Then came more bad news.