The powerful European Banking Authority has revealed further information supplied by the Bank of Portugal on whether measures had been taken to detect or halt money laundering at BES Angola.
According to the European Banking Authority, following an interim forensic audit report on Banco Espírito Santo, offences were highlighted in October 2014 involving, among other things, the relationship between Banco Espírito Santo and its Angolan subsidiary, "including inadequate procedures in terms of money laundering prevention."
Today’s comments from the European Banking Authority arose after the Socialist MEP Ana Gomes raised further concerns about alleged irregularities at Espírito Santo Group companies and specifically at BES Angola.
Following investigations, the European Banking Authority said that it twice had asked the Bank of Portugal for information relating to BES Angola which until August 2014 was majority owned by Banco Espírito Santo.
The first request for information was sent to the Bank of Portugal on August 20th.
The response on September 4th was evasive as the Bank of Portugal said that the BES subsidiary in Angola "was subject to the application of local laws against money laundering and to the supervision of the Central Bank of Angola."
On 10 October, the EBA sent an additional request for information, to which the bank of Portugal responded on October 31st, saying that following the forensic audit report it had initiated 'administrative procedures' in relation to Banco Espírito Santo and its relationship with BES Angola, including looking into 'inadequate procedures regarding the prevention of money laundering.'
Until recently, Banco Espírito Santo held 51.9% of BES Angola, which for 10 years was controlled by Álvaro Sobrinho who reported directly to Ricardo Salgado thus circumventing most, if not all internal BES controls.
Sobrinho is currently explaining how the relationship between BES Angola and Portugal worked as he is appearing in front of the BES parliamentary commission of inquiry this afternoon.
The European Banking Authority’s letter to Ana Gomes stated that in its opinion the Bank of Portugal’s due diligence measures against money laundering in domestic bank branches and their subsidiaries with jurisdiction outside the European Union should not just be of the formal sort, i.e. the Bank of Portugal could and should have done more to look at and stop any money laundering between Banco Espírito Santo and BES Angola, which was happening under its nose.
