A ‘mistake’ by Novo Banco has delighted thousands of Caixa Geral customers who have received unexpected but welcome windfalls.
"It was clearly a mistake," but one that may be hard to reverse as Novo Banco can not simply recall the money it has transferred and must rely on the goodwill of the recipients, or the courts.
Caixa Geral de Depósitos said today that Novo Banco transferred money by mistake to those of its former customers who now hold an account at Caixa Geral.
The Caixa spokesman said today "I confirm that the Novo Banco transferred the money by mistake. It was clearly a mistake," but he would not say how much has arrived in Caixa accounts.
The beneficiaries now have to authorise the cancellation and reversal of the transfer, otherwise it is off to court, just what Novo Baco boss Stuck da Cunha does not need to distract him while he is engaged in selling off Novo Banco on the cheap.
These mysterious transfers may also have arrived at former customers' accounts at other banks - Caixa at least has confirmed the error which is more than Novo Banco has managed.
With tens of thousands of customers fleeing from Novo Banco as soon as they were able to after BES went bust, the total cost of this “error” may be significant and there is a good chance that some of those BES customers that were ripped off by Ricardo Salgado’s management team will receive substantial credits to their new Caixa accounts.
