The executive president of Santander Totta, Pedro Castro e Almeida, considered this Thursday, 5th, that more support may be needed for companies affected by Storm Kristin and defended non-refundable capital support.
At the press conference to present the results (profits of 963.8 million euros), Castro e Almeida considered that support measures for individuals (including moratoriums that suspend credit payments for a few months) should be sufficient.
For companies, he considered that “there may have to be non-refundable support”, that is, money that companies receive for investments and that they will not have to return.
“A company with badly destroyed infrastructure, I don’t know if it will be able to get back on its feet with more credit and moratoriums,” Castro e Almeida told journalists.
The manager stated that the support needed depends on the damage and what will be covered by insurance but that there are probably many cases in which more support will have to be considered, including non-repayable funds.
Castro e Almeida is leaving the executive presidency of Santander Totta (he was appointed ‘chief risk officer’ of the Santander Group) and will be replaced by Isabel Guerreiro, current vice-president and who has already played a leading role in the presentation of results.
This Wednesday, the Association of Municipalities defended that the Government create a system of incentives for companies aimed at replacing production capacity, which reimburses the damages not reimbursed by insurance companies.
According to Ana Abrunhosa, the ANMP makes this suggestion because “it is better to finance non-refundable funds and ensure that companies rise and restore their competitiveness, than to create support lines here with a 100% guarantee for companies and 90% for banks”, said the vice-president of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), Ana Abrunhosa, at the end of a meeting of the ANMP board of directors.
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