Members of the Budget and Finance Commission will urgently summon the Minister of Finance to Parliament regarding the expiration of the E series savings certificates and the distribution of this product by banks.
MPs unanimously approved this Wednesday a request submitted by the PCP for an urgent hearing by Finance Minister Joao Nuno Mendes to suspend issuance of Series E savings certificates, as well as part of the BU’s request that triggered the line.
On the other hand, part of the BE request, which also urgently summoned Finance Minister Fernando Medina to the Commission on Budget and Finance (COF) due to the PS’s negative vote, was rejected.
Along the way, this was also linked to the vote against PS, Chega’s request for an urgent hearing on the case of the Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Agency for Treasury and Public Debt Management (IGCP), Miguel Martin.
We are talking about the end of the series of savings certificates (SS) “E” and the beginning of the series “F” with a lower reward, a change that allows the bank to also become a sales channel for this financial product.
During the discussion of the demands, PCP MP Duarte Alves considered that the Assembly of the Republic (AR) “cannot ignore the decision affecting savings”, but also “the relationship with the bank itself”.
An argument shared by BE MP Mariana Mortagua, who argued that it was important to discuss “the decision point after the banks’ announcement”, as well as the fees the Republic would or would not pay private banks to distribute the product.
Cheg’s deputy Rui Afonso also argued that SAs are “an important savings tool for the Portuguese” and “allows them to be less dependent on bank financing”.
CA subscriptions are no longer limited to branches of CTT or Espaços do Cidadão, but are also available “on the physical or digital networks of any financial or payment institution registered with the Bank of Portugal and designated for this purpose by the IGCP”.
The suspension of the E series and its replacement by a new one has drawn a number of criticisms from the opposition, which accuses the government of giving in to the banks or doing them a favor.
The accusation was dismissed by Finance Minister João Nuno Méndez in a statement to reporters on Saturday, in which he responded to criticism and said “there was no concession to the bank.”
In response to Lusa, an official source from APB stated that “the banks had no prior knowledge of either the savings certificate decision or the banks’ alleged involvement in the sale.”
The same source emphasized that the decision will be up to each financial institution: “As soon as the conditions for such participation become known, each bank will conduct its own analysis and make a decision for itself.”
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said on Monday that the change in the terms of savings certificates was an “implicit call to banks” to offer higher interest rates on deposits.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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