Ana Cristina Tapadinha, assistant general secretary at Deco told Lusa News Agency that the case was filed with the Lisbon Administrative Court last Monday.
Ana Cristina Tapadinha also said they had filed another case, this one with the Lisbon Civil Court, on 3 February against BES, KPMG, the bank’s auditor, and the former BES board directors, including the former CEO Ricardo Salgado, and other members of the Espírito Santo family.
On 3 August 2014, the Bank of Portugal took over the reins of BES after it had presented net half-yearly losses of €3.6 billion and split the institution into a bad bank with all the toxic assets and liabilities (a vehicle which is still called BES, and where the shareholders are corralled) and a good bank, although it is only transitory, called Novo Banco.
In related news, the chairman of another association set up to defend the interests of bank customers, Ricardo Ângelo, told members of Portugal’s parliament that many clients of Banco Espírito Santo, which was taken over and split up by regulators last year after announcing huge losses, were in a desperate situation as a result of regulators’ negligence.
In particular, those who bought commercial paper issued by other companies in the Espírito Santo group, that were later taken into court protection, have lost large sums.
“People are desperate because they lost their life savings,” Ângelo told a hearing of the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the Espírito Santo group.
“We represent about 500 people,” he said. “There are people who find it difficult to pay a 50-euro membership fee and have no money to live on. They’re people who have lost everything as a result of ... there not being correct [banking] vigilance.”
According to Ângelo, elderly people with BES accounts were targeted by an “aggressive campaign” aimed at getting them to use their savings to buy commercial paper issued by Espírito Santo International, Rioforte and ESPART - all companies based abroad - without their having any idea that these were products with risk attached.
“This is almost criminal,” he said. “The profile of the clients affected is conservative.... If they had been told there was risk, no one would ever have put all their money in it.”
He denied that customers who put their money into these products - which he said offered a “net rate of 2 and a bit percent” - were in any way “greedy”.
Earlier, the chairman of the committee cited as a “weighty political signal” the fact that such associations were being heard as part of the inquiry.
“It’s a message [showing a] desire that a start is made on creating a solution for your problem, which is obviously a grave problem that concerns us all.”
The proposal to hear groups representing BES customers was “unanimous” among parties represented on the committee, he added.
The inquiry began on 17 November and was due to wind up by 19 February, but has since been extended for a further 60 days. TPN/Lusa