The TV station that may well have hastened Banif’s collapse could end up in court as a report has been lodged with the Public Prosecutor which will decide if there is a case to answer.
TVi’s broadcast on December 13, 2015 resulted in a run on the bank with depositors withdrawing €1 billion in the subsequent few days.
The bank was rendered insolvent and the 20th December resolution provided an injection of €2.2 billion in the bank, the sale of its healthy assets to Santander for €150 million and the creation of a "bad bank" for Banif’s toxic assets.
Santander received also around €200 million in tax credits and has been congratulating iitself ever since for a smart deal - at the expense of Portugal's long-suffering taxpayers who are picking up the bill.
In the case against the TV station, Banif has contracted Lobo Moutinho of Sérvulo & Associates who will be watching with interest the performance next Wednesday of the station’s information director Sérgio Figueiredo at the commission of inquiry set up to look at Banif’s collapse.
The Banif case will be sent to the prosecutor who will take up to eight months to examine the case, confirm which laws have been broken and recommend whether there should be a prosecution.
TVi did apologised for its broadcast but it was too late to stop many Banif depositors withdrawing their money and collapsing the bank.
Several Banif directors, as well as members of the government, blame TVi News for delivering the final blow to Banif.
Jorge Tomé, the former Banif president, said that TVI programme forced a resolution on the bank and António Varela at Banif, dubbed the programme "criminal."
Mário Centeno, the Minister of Finance, admitted that the news report did have an impact on the bank.
Meanwhile, the row continues over the refusal of Vítor Constâncio of the European Central Bank to give his opinion to the Banif committee of inquiry.
"Why did Vítor Constâncio agree to answer the BES commission of inquiry when already vice-president of the ECB, yet refuses to do so at the Banif commission of inquiry?" asked Portuguese MEP Paulo Rangel.
Rangel said this is an inconsistent position, which raises suspicions and therefore requires further clarification.
MEP José Manuel Fernandes said there is no reason to prevent Vítor Constâncio collaborating with the commission of inquiry into Banif.
"Vítor Constâncio is not a Portuguese political exile in Germany nor does he benefit from any immunity that prevents him from providing clarification on a matter which was under his responsibility for over a decade,” said Fernandes.
Constâncio is adamant that he will not come to be questioned and has dismissed the perfectly simple request as beneath his stature as vice-president of the ECB.
