Changes in the Portuguese financial supervision

The supervision of investment funds’ management companies and of securitisation funds’ management companies was transferred from the Bank of Portugal to the Portuguese Securities Commission (PSC), concentrating on the PSC both the prudential and market conduct supervision, which will allow a more global view on the part of the PSC, aiming to increase the efficiency on the compliance procedures that the aforementioned players are faced with.

This legislative amendment also foresees the creation of Loan Funds or Loan Companies (although subject to further regulation by the PSC) and brings changes to the Venture Capital, Social Entrepreneurship and Specialised Investment Legal Regime.

These Loan Funds and Loan Companies aim to be a supplement to the traditional financing instruments (in particular, bank credit) for the companies operating in the Portuguese market,as they are allowed to grant credit to companies and to acquire non-performing loans owned by banks, thus improving the complementarity between the banking sector and venture capital and securitisation sectors.

This change is the result of new legislation on the Portuguese financial supervision system which shall bring such system closer to European regulation on this matter.

The mentioned legislative change comes into force on January 1, 2020.

[Photo: Sean Pollock, available at: unsplash.com]