Portugal - Banking and securities

All 22 banks in Portugal, except for three foreign-owned ones (Banco do Brasil, Credit Franco-Portugais, and the Bank of London and South America), were nationalized in 1975. A 1983 law, however, permitted private enterprise to return to the banking industry. The Bank of Portugal, the central bank (founded in 1846), functions as a bank of issue, while the European Central Bank controls monetary policy.

During the late 1990s, Portugal's banking industry underwent significant restructuring due to foreign investment and consolidation. A major series of consolidations in 1996 left Banco Comercial Portugeuês (BCP), Banco Pinto and Sotto Mayor, and Banco Portugeuês de Investimento as the three largest private banks. Further consolidation came in 1999 when Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH) merged with Champalimaud. Fearing increased Spanish influence in the Portuguese banking industry, the Portuguese government sought to block the deal and the dispute appeared headed for the European Court. Ultimately, Portugal's finance minister, Joaquim Pina Moura, forged a compromise in which BSCH acquired two banks in the Champalimaud group.

The International Monetary Fund reports that in 2001, currency and demand deposits—an aggregate commonly known as M1—were equal to $47.0 billion. In that same year, M2—an aggregate equal to M1 plus savings deposits, small time deposits, and money market mutual funds—was $111.7 billion.

Portugal's two stock exchanges, located in Lisbon and Oporto, were closed after the coup of April 1974. The Lisbon exchange reopened in 1976, and the Oporto exchange in 1981. In January 1992 the market was split into three tiers, of which the first is the major liquid market: this included the 11 firms whose shares are traded regularly and which have a minimum market capitalization of E 500 million. Trading outside the stock exchanges is still widespread. Into the late 1990s trade on the exchange continued to grow as continued privatization led to greater amounts of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs).