LISBON, Portugal (AP) — For Portuguese taxpayers fed up with coming to the rescue of troubled banks, there’s bad news: another one needs help.
The government says it has won provisional approval from European authorities to recapitalize Portugal’s biggest bank by assets, state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos, with 5.1 billion euros ($5.7 billion).
The Finance Ministry said in a statement the government will inject 2.7 billion euros into CGD. Also, it will convert 960 million euros’ worth of government-held CGD bonds into CGD shares while state-owned holding company ParCaixa will transfer shares worth 500 million euros to CGD.
Since 2008 Portuguese authorities have already provided some 10 billion euros to four other banks, all of them non state-owned. Portugal also needed a 78 billion-euro bailout in 2011 amid the eurozone debt crisis.
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