A report from the Bank of Portugal , led by the ever-alert Carlos Costa (pictured), calculates the amount of public funds injected into the banking system in the last 12 years at €23.8 billion.
The public aid to banks includes both public and private banks with State-owned Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) adsorbing the most, a fifth of which already has been repaid.
The information appears in an extraordinary report from the Bank of Portugal, sent on Thursday to Parliament, which has bits missing as the Bank of Portugal claimed that certain details were covered by ‘banking secrecy.’
It’s now up to the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administrative Modernization to decide on what can be published and what is in fact should remain secret, especially the annex with data on large debtors.
CGD soaked up €6.25 billion, Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) had €4.915 billion euros followed by BES (now Novo Banco) which pulled €4.33 billion from taxpayers’ pockets.
These three banks occupy the first three places on the list of banks that were too precious to let fail, according to the government.
Banif and BCP received €3.355 billion and €3 billion euros, respectively. BPI received €1.5 billion and BPP had €450 million euros from unwitting taxpayers.
In total, €23.8 billion has been injected into Portugal’s banks, an amount that peaked in 2012 when €11.065 billion was injected in one year.
The Bank of Portugal report states that more than €5 billion has been repaid - no doubt to the Finance Minister's cheery delight.
