PS calls for hearings on "banking cartel"

The Socialist Party (PS) called this Monday for a series of parliamentary hearings on the “banking cartel” process, including those of the Bank of Portugal, the Competition Authority and the main banks involved, considering that the cancellation of the fines “raises well-founded concerns”.

In a request sent to the parliamentary committee on Budget, Finance and Public Administration, to which the Lusa news agency had access, the PS states that, between 2002 and 2013, several banks “were involved in practices of exchanging sensitive information”, with the Competition Authority concluding that this represented a “serious breach of competition legislation, applying fines in 2019 totaling 225 million euros”.

"Successive court decisions on appeal determined that the infractions were time-barred , leading to the annulment of almost all of the fines imposed. The result was that, despite the gravity of the facts, only a residual fine of one thousand euros imposed on Banif remained, which has not yet been paid due to the bank's liquidation," the same request states.

According to the Socialist Party, "this situation raises well-founded concerns" because it results in a "serious perception of impunity among financial institutions," as the practices were recognized as illicit but had no consequences due to "procedural delays."

Parliamentary hearings of the Competition Authority, the Bank of Portugal, the Portuguese Banking Association and the management of CGD, BCP, Santander and BPI are therefore requested.

“The PS considers it important to hear the banking institutions themselves that are defendants in the case, namely those that, due to their weight in the financial system and the significant fines that should have been applied, have the greatest responsibility in clarifying the country: CGD, BCP, Santander and BPI — these four banking institutions are responsible for more than 90% of the fines applied by the Competition Authority” , he explains.

For the socialists, the management of these banks "must provide the country with public clarifications on the practices they engaged in" and also explain what changes they have since made to their codes of conduct, in addition to the commitments "to ensure the strengthening of transparency and healthy competition in the banking sector."

For the Socialist deputies, parliament “cannot fail to exercise its role of democratic scrutiny and guarantee of transparency in the banking sector.”

“Despite the statute of limitations on the infringements, the facts found were considered unlawful by the Competition Authority and confirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which reinforces the need for parliamentary scrutiny,” he explains.

On August 28, an official source from the Competition Authority assured Lusa that it “did everything it could” to ensure that the financial institutions involved in the case known as the “banking cartel” were convicted for the infractions committed from 2002 to 2013.

On August 25, the Constitutional Court dismissed a complaint from the regulator against the fact that, in June, Judge-Councillor Afonso Patrão had refused to admit the appeal that the AdC submitted to assess the constitutionality of the process.

"The AdC notes that it did everything it could to ensure that this violation of competition law was punished, especially since it was confirmed by two courts," says an official source from the AdC, referring to the rulings of the Competition Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which considered that the banks distorted competition for more than ten years.

“This decision by the TC conference does not invalidate the AdC’s reasoning” , states an official source from the institution led by Nuno Cunha Rodrigues, recalling that the TCRS “confirmed the facts” and that the CJEU “clarified the typology of the infringement, confirming that it was an infringement by object (an expression in Competition Law that qualifies infringements as so serious that they do not require proof of effects on consumers)”.

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