The possible investigation came following a request by the European parliament, which accepted a petition by a group of emigrants who lost their money and questioned the way Banco Espírito Santo (BES) sold financial products to the emigrants, particularly in France and Switzerland.
They claim there was a violation of financial mediation rules and that they were unfairly treated by the Bank of Portugal and Novo Banco (which took over as the ‘good bank’) when the resolution of the bank took place in August 2014.
An EC source said that it is the “job of the national supervision authorities” to investigate whether there were any breaches of European rules by the entities under their supervision and up to the national courts to investigate any breaches of the laws on financial instruments and financial markets.