The news was reported by the electronic edition of the Expresso weekly paper, where Carlos Costa wants to “recall the truth” following last week’s documentary on Portuguese TV channel SIC, about the BES [Banco Espírito Santo] scandal, focussing on the actions of the central bank during the second half of 2013, while the supervisor was led by Carlos Costa.

“There are changes laid against the supervisor that distort the reality of what happened”, Mr Carlos Costa said in the letter quoted by Expresso.

Carlos Costa said in his missive that the reports "try to discredit the conduct of the Bank of Portugal and its supervisory role ".

The TV documentary said that Bank of Portugal experts had questioned the reputation of the former and now disgraced BES strong man, Ricardo Salgado, to be removed from power in 2013.

Expresso said the governor of the country’s central bank wants to clarify all the loose ends the documentary raises to defend the confidence in the institution.