The Former Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, Carlos Costa, took over as Governor of the Bank of Portugal (BdP) on Monday.
The economist replaced Vítor Constâncio, who took up the post of Vice-President of the European Central Bank a week ago. Colleagues have described Carlos Costa as serious, discreet and with a wide experience of the financial sector.
The new governor will have a tough act to follow in Vítor Constâncio, who was widely respected at the Bank of Portugal and within the national banking fraternity.
However, successive banking corruption scandals and boardroom power struggles in Portugal involving banks such as Millennium bcp, BPN and BPP over the past five years mean that the new governor will have to introduce tighter supervision and regulation over the nation’s banks.
Carlos Costa’s other challenge is that he takes over precisely at a time of financial crisis in Europe in which international ratings agencies are treating Portugal and its financial institutions warily following the Greek Debt Crisis in April and May.
His taking over of the BdP on Monday also coincided with a meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxemburg on Monday and Tuesday in which one of the items on the agenda for discussion was an EC evaluation of the supplementary financial austerity measures being taken by the Portuguese government to slash the public deficit.
