Amid recession and difficult trading conditions, the sector is delivering “an impressive performance”, says Citigroup Smith Barney, lifting operating profit by an average of 8% last year without suffering any significant deterioration in asset quality.
“The Portuguese banking system has adapted well to changing conditions, including the recent downturn,” says António Guerreiro, chairman and chief executive of Banco Finantia, an independent investment bank that achieved record profits in 2003. “Restructuring programmes have taken them to new levels of productivity and efficiency, to a point where they enjoy some of the best banking ratios in the world.”
