A group of protestors invaded another Novo Banco branch this morning, this one was in Braga, and stayed for most of the day.
This unexpected delegation left an appeal to the President of the Republic and voiced their criticism of the banking supervisor for giving them neither security or answers.
In a statement read out at 4pm after discussions with bank staff and a benign group of policemen, the spokesman for the out-of-pocket BES investors, Manuel Esteves, praised the "solidarity" shown by Novo Banco employees saying they too had been cheated.
The 40 BES protestors demanded the return of their "life savings" that had been entrusted to the bank, then led by Ricardo Salgado, and waved banners with slogans against the Bank of Portugal regulatorary managers whom they called liars and thieves.
"We await a response from the Bank of Portugal and Novo Banco in meeting their commitments. We stand by the police officers who are here and have given us security, something that the supervisor has not done," commented Esteves.
"We appeal to the President, we appeal to Parliament and to the Bank of Portugal," he continued, explaining that what they want "are answers."
"I have been wronged, I have been robbed of my possessions. It's a shame that we live in a country where the supervisory bodies are impotent. It's a shame that we live in an anarchic country. We have a supervisory system that contradicts itself and we are here with no one to protect us," according to one of the protestors.
"I have not received any indication from Novo Banco as to what has happened to my money. What I know is from the media that my so called secure investment has disappeared.”
One said that the manager of his BES branch had tricked him into buying investments which were sold to him over the counter and marketed as 'safe' but in fact were in highly risky Grupo Banco Espírito Santo companies which since have folded.
Meanwhile the Bank of Portugal claims to have no duty of care to the 2,500 BES investors who lost their money, choosing instead to blame the stock market regulator CMVM for the fiasco. The government says it is a commercial matter and is not going to interfere.
