Lisbon, Oct. 14, 2025 (Lusa) - The president of Banco Português de Fomento (BPF) said on Tuesday that the bank will reach €7 billion in financing this year, up from € 500 million in 2024.
At a lunch debate at the International Club of Portugal in Lisbon, Gonçalo Regalado said that when he arrived at the BPF at the beginning of 2025, it was "completely unstructured" and "full of resistance" and that his initial job was to energise the bank, including the 600 or so employees, and to make entrepreneurs and companies the BPF's "holy grail".
By the end of this year, he added, the bank expects to have reached €7 billion in financing, including capital instruments, debt and investment funds.
According to Regalado, this figure means "multiplying 14 times what was done last year", which sounds "little or easy, but it's neither little nor easy".
"We do more per month now than we did all last year," he said.
By 2026, Banco Português de Fomento aims to reach €10 billion in financing, equivalent to 3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The president of the BFP also said that the institution is beginning to dynamise financial instruments to help municipalities build affordable and social housing.
Asked by those present at the lunch-debate how he managed to attract professionals from the financial sector to the BPF, Regalado said that it was difficult and only by convincing them of the impact of their work on the country, because their salaries are equivalent to civil service directors, which he considered very low for those coming from commercial banking and insurance.
"I'm the lowest paid chairman in the financial system, my directors are the lowest paid," he said, arguing that it should be possible to pay the same average salary as in the last three years.
Gonçalo Regalado was a director at BCP bank before becoming chairman of BPF.
Also today at the lunch-debate, the president of BPF said that Portuguese commercial banks lack courage when it comes to financing the economy, noting that regulation and the age of those who lead them (in many cases over 60 years old) don't help them take on more risk.
"It's difficult to ask people with 40-year careers to take risks now in the last three years of their working lives," he said.
The Banco Português de Fomento group (100% owned by the Portuguese state) was created to promote the modernisation of companies and the country's economic development, financing investments through loans and participating in projects as a shareholder.
Banco Português de Fomento also manages resources from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).
Earlier this year, the then Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Castro Almeida, argued in parliament that the Banco de Fomento had not had the expected impact and promised to relaunch it.
In February, the new administration took office, with Gonçalo Regalado as the executive president.
Last week, the BFP announced tenders for the five-year lease of around 20 vehicles, totalling around €1 million, prompting the PS to ask the Ministry of Economy questions.
In a response to Lusa, the BFP said that it had decided that "the increase in the number of vehicles and their overall cost is due to the growth in the number of BFP employees and the increase in the rental term from four to five years" and that "the vehicle rental process was duly approved in the Activity Plan and Budget for 2025", with the "expenditure duly authorised by the financial and sectoral authorities".
IM/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
