Applications for authorisation for the exercise of functions of the members of the management and supervisory bodies must be submitted via the BPnet portal, the Banco de Portugal’s portal for operational communication with the financial system, using the following service for authorisation and registration requests: ‘Pedidos de Autorização e Registo’ (PAR).

The following must submit their applications for authorisation through Bpnet’s PAR service:

• Credit institutions;
• Investment firms and other financial companies;
• Payment institutions;
• Electronic money institutions;
• Branches of credit institutions authorised in third countries.

Authorised users may access the BPnet portal here.

For more information on BPnet, including on how to access the portal, see Instruction of the Banco de Portugal No 21/2020 (in Portuguese only).

For more information on Bpnet’s PAR service, see Instruction of the Banco de Portugal No 7/2016 (in Portuguese only).

Applications for authorisation for the exercise of functions by significant institutions

Significant institutions must submit via the IMAS portal, the Information Management System of the European Central Bank (ECB), the following applications for authorisation:

1. applications for authorisation for the exercise of functions of members of the management and supervisory bodies, in accordance with Article 30 et seq. of the Legal Framework of Credit Institutions and Financial Companies (Regime Geral das Instituições de Crédito e Sociedades Financeiras – RGICSF);
2. applications for authorisation for the exercise of functions of key function holders, in accordance with Article 33-A of the RGICSF and Article 18 of Notice of the Banco de Portugal No 3/2020;
3. applications for authorisation for the exercise of functions of non-EU Member State branch managers, in accordance with Article 42 of the RGICSF.

Given that the use of the IMAS portal is mandatory for institutions directly supervised by the ECB, as a result of the implementation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the former cannot use BPnet’s PAR service to submit the aforementioned applications. 

The IMAS portal allows institutions to submit and exchange information with supervisory authorities related to authorisation processes for the exercise of functions. 

The information contained in the questionnaire in the Annex to Instruction of the Banco de Portugal No 23/2018 is reported via the form available on the ECB’s website. Statements referring to the candidate and the institution have been adapted and harmonised. For more details on the implementation of the IMAS portal and the particulars supporting the aforementioned processes, see Instruction of the Banco de Portugal No 7/2021.

Given that the IMAS portal only covers applications for authorisation for the exercise of functions, other processes or communications must be submitted via the usual channels, namely BPnet’s PAR service. For more information on the PAR service, see Instruction of the Banco de Portugal No 7/2016.

The IMAS portal is fully managed by the ECB, which determines its terms of use and ensures its smooth functioning, including incident management.