Portugal’s banks have around €4 billion in bad loans for sale, 75% of which from the extinct BES. In the country there are almost one hundred credit recovery companies, but only about a fifth is registered.

«To buy [non-performing credit] from CGD [Caixa Geral de Depósitos] is one thing, buying from Santander is other completely different», said to Renascença the executive director from APERC, the association that represents more than 90% of the recovered credit in the country.

The reason, he explains, «has to do with the credit’s risk analysis and its acceptance prospects». According to António Gaspar, «the acceptance of the credit risk analysis, for instance, is very much stricter in Santander than in CGD or of what it was in BES, now Novo Banco».

In practical terms, this means that, with a stricter risk analysis the probability of default is much smaller and the «existing defaults will be easily recovered than those having a larger net, on which everything fits in».

Original Story: Renascença | Author: Sandra Afonso 
Photo: Caixa Geral de Depósitos
Translation and Edition: Prime Yield