Portugal

Portugal (Portuguese: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa), is a country on the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, being bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 km (754 mi) long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union. The republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments.

The land within the borders of current Portugal has been continuously settled and fought over since prehistoric times. The Celts and the Romans were followed by the Visigothic and the Suebi Germanic peoples, who were themselves later invaded by the Moors. These Muslim peoples were eventually expelled during the Christian Reconquista of the peninsula. By 1139, Portugal had established itself as a kingdom independent from León. In the 15th and 16th centuries, as the result of pioneering the Age of Discovery, Portugal expanded Western influence and established the first global empire, becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers.

Espírito Santo

Espírito Santo (Portuguese pronunciation: [esˈpiɾitu ˈsɐ̃tu]) is one of the states of southeastern Brazil, often referred to by the abbreviation "ES". Its capital is Vitória and the largest city is Vila Velha. The name of the state means literally "holy spirit" after the Holy Spirit of Christianity. With an extensive coastline (40% of the territory is on the coast), the state has some of the country's main ports, but the beaches are the most significant tourist attractions. Vitória, the capital, is on an island, next to Guarapari, well known for its sands. In the extreme north is the Itaúnas part of the municipality of Conceição da Barra, whose sand dunes and forró are famous. Also on the coast, the typical cuisine is another attraction with moqueca capixaba and other local seafood dishes. Inland, there are many natural attractions such as the national parks of Pedra Azul and Caparaó, and the Italian and German colonies.

Geography

With 46,180 square kilometers (17,830 sq mi), it is about the size of Estonia, or half the size of Portugal, and has a variety of habitats including coastal planes, lakes, mountainous forests, mangroves and many others.

Banco de Portugal

The Banco de Portugal (English: Bank of Portugal) is the central bank of the Portuguese Republic. Established by a royal charter on 19 November 1846 to act as a commercial bank and issuing bank, it came about as the result of a merger of the Banco de Lisboa and the Companhia de Confiança Nacional, an investment company specialised in the financing of the public debt. The bank issues legal tender that is designated as the national currency – the real until 1911, the escudo from 1911 until 1998, and the euro since 1999.

Following its nationalisation in September 1974 and its new Organic Law (1975), the Banco de Portugal was, for the first time, responsible for the supervision of the banking system.

It is an integral part of the European System of Central Banks, which was founded in June 1998.

The current governor is Carlos Costa.

In 2013, the bank announced that it would pay €359 million in dividends, referring to the year of 2012.

In 2014, the bank announced that it would pay €202 million in dividends, referring to the year of 2013, representing a steep decline in comparison to 2012.

Banco Espírito Santo

Banco Espírito Santo (BES) was a Portuguese bank based in Lisbon that on 4 August 2014 was split in two banks: Novo Banco, which kept its healthy operations, and a "bad bank" to keep its toxic assets.

It once was the second largest listed Portuguese bank and the ninth largest contributor to the PSI-20 index. BES was the second largest private financial institution in Portugal in terms of net assets (€80,700 million in March 2011), with an average market share of 20.3% in Portugal and 2.1 million clients.

On 3 August 2014, Banco de Portugal, Portugal's central bank, announced a €4.4 billion bailout of BES that heralded the end of BES as a private bank. The bailout was funded by the Portuguese Resolution Fund. The bank was split into a healthy bank, Novo Banco, while the toxic assets remain in the existing bank.

It has since been proven that the administration of BES led by Ricardo Salgado "disobeyed the Bank of Portugal 21 times, between December 2013 and July 2014", practising "painful acts of ruinous management".

Novo Banco

Novo Banco is a Portuguese bank introduced on 4 August 2014 by the Bank of Portugal to rescue assets and liabilities of Banco Espírito Santo (BES).

The rescue of Banco Espirito Santo came after weeks of increasingly bad news about the financial state of the lender, particularly its exposure to a cascade of companies headed by its founding Espirito Santo family headed by Ricardo Salgado. BES was to be split into a "good bank", renamed Novo Banco, and a "bad bank", which will house BES's exposures to the troubled Espirito Santo business empire as well as its Angolan subsidiary BESA. Novo Banco was recapitalised to the tune of 4.9 billion euros by a special bank Resolution Fund. The Portuguese state lends the fund 4.4 billion euros.The bank has a board for the 2014-2017 mandate and is presided by Vítor Bento.

A month and a half after he started up his duties, Vítor Bento abandoned the leadership of Novo Banco and was replaced in September 2014 by Eduardo Stock da Cunha.

The Resolution Fund is the bank’s only shareholder until a sale transaction takes place. This fund is a structure created in 2012 with contributions from Portuguese banks and from the financial sector, and its operations are audited by the Portuguese regulator Banco de Portugal. On 30 June 2015, the resolution fund had received three binding bid offers on Novo Banco, from the Spanish banking group Banco Santander SA, the Chinese insurance group Fosun International Limited, the privately owned Chinese insurer Anbang Insurance, and the American private-equity firm Apollo Global Management. One of the bidders opted to improve their offer on 7 August 2015. The selection and sale to the final winner of the bidding process is expected to take place during Q3-2015. On 20 August, Banco de Portugal released a statement that the final phase of the sale process, was now expected to by concluded already by 31 August.