Banks are displaying considerable resilience, with their profits growing, in an economy that is climbing out of recession.By Peter Wise.
Portuguese banks are nothing if not resilient. This will be the fifth year in which the economy has underperformed average EU growth. Recovery since a deep recession in 2003, when GDP growth contracted by 1.1%, has been weak and the outlook for the coming two years is less than buoyant.

Investment banks that are starved of corporate business have looked to project finance as a source of growth but middle-market corporate lending is looking up and they are getting ready to grab their share, reports Peter Wise.

Having been left in the dust of other countries racing to be at the economic forefront of the EU, Portugal is fighting back to reclaim its rightful place among the leaders in global investment, says Peter Wise.
Since 1993 more immigrants, most of them from the Ukraine and other east European countries, have been arriving in Portugal each year than emigrants have been leaving.

The appointment of Paulo Teixeira Pinto as chief executive of Millennium BCP ended speculation about the succession to one of the most prominent positions in Portuguese banking.

Peter Wise charts the rise of the Portuguese banking sector since it was opened up to foreign competition.

Portugal’s new prime minister is keen to create growth and investment, and wants the country to copy the direction already taken by its banking sector. Peter Wise explains.

Asset-backed securities from the Iberian Peninsula have proved popular with European investors. A recent transaction, the first to be backed by auto leases and loans, and to combine a securitisation framework from Portugal and Spain, indicates that the market is still developing.

A new generation of directors, bankers, economists and politicians are determined that Portugal will be completely transformed, writes Peter Wise in Lisbon.

Portuguese banks have proved themselves buoyant in a challenging economic environment, diversifying and cost-cutting to achieve good results. Peter Wise reports.
Recession? What recession? Despite six successive quarters of economic downturn, Portuguese banks are achieving robust growth. Most of them outshone analysts’ forecasts by a wide margin in 2003 and several recorded their best annual results ever.

Millennium BCP is emerging from a spate of troubles that hit its share value hard. Focusing closely on core business has helped the turnaround.