The deputy governor of the Bank of Portugal, Pedro Duarte Neves, has been under a degree of pressure of late as his memory has developed a tendency to fail him at key moments.
Neves has been shifted, not shifted out as many had hoped, but shifted sideway within the cosy Bank of Portugal structure despite his clear failure to supervise Banco Espírito Santo in any recognisable measurable way.
The bank-speak management drivel from the Bank of Portugal today was of the highest quality with talk of a "separation and rotation of different areas of supervision” meaning that those that were meant to be supervising have been moved sideways and new people have been wheeled in to have a go.
Pedro Duarte Neves has been an almost invisible deputy governor of the Bank of Portugal since 2006, where he was in charge of banks and credit institutions, making sure of their "observance of the standards governing the activity."
His move will be a welcome personal release (on the same salary) as there has been an increasing clamour for him to have a stab at explaining his poor memory, notable over a certain statement he made about BES and his knowledge of additional losses as a result of bond repurchases.
KPMG says it advised the deputy governor of additional losses from bond repurchases on July 16, while Pedro Duarte Neves says he only became aware of this situation on 25 July.
Nine days is a long time in banking supervision so it is no surprise he is no longer in control of supervising the banking sector but Neves can content himself with a new role in the department of studies and statistics at the Bank of Portugal where he loses oversight but will be looking at financial stability and "promoting synergies," which should keep him out of harm's way.
Supervision and all issues that are related to the single supervisory mechanism under the responsibility of the European Central Bank now will come under António Varela from Banif, appointed by the Government last week.
The other new appointee is Hélder Rosalino, the former Secretary of Public Administration, who will be busying himself "promoting synergies in the areas of internal management, through the allocation of responsibilities for human resources, administrative services and information systems," i.e. head of personnel.
There are various other moves but importantly the governor, Carlos Costa, is staying put having sacrificed his deputy. He is now busy working on a press release which will not contain the word ‘synergy.’
