The secrecy surrounding Caixa Geral de Depósitos is to be lifted as a court decided today that, despite a legal appeal by the bank, the details of the larger loans made by the bank since 2000 will have to be revealed.
In a separate petition, the Constitutional Court has rejected the request for confidentiality made by the former short-lived president of Caixa Geral, António Domingues, who wanted his income and asset statements kept from public view.
Domingues had lodged his statements, but not for public view, last November, just a month before he resigned in a huff as his covert and cushy deal with the Finance Minister was unraveling due mainly to press investigation.
As for the bigger picture at Caixa Geral, the bank, the banking regulator (Bank of Portugal) and the CMVM stock market regulator all have fought to keep the list of disastrous big loans a secret, claiming that to reveal details of who borrowed how much would be the end of banking confidentiality and would somehow damage the entire financial system of the country.
Judges have dismissed this attempt to continue to conceal the loans and the list must now be sent to the parliamentary committee of inquiry which had demanded the list as part of its remit into uncovering the corruption and cronyism that has defined Caixa Geral’s lending policy for decades.
One month ago, the court decided that these loan documents should be revealed but Caixa Geral refused to send the requested information to Parliament and instead went to court to protect itself and its clients. It is this appeal for continuing secrecy by the bank that has been dismissed today.
The loans that the committee are so keen to look into, total around €3 billion and are a mixture of still current loans, loans that are in default and the measures taken to date to recover monies owning.
Portugal's cadre of so-called elite businessmen will sleep only fitfully this weekend as many of the loans, it is suspected, were made on the basis of connections rather than sound banking practice.
