Banco de Portugal is responsible for the market conduct supervision of credit institutions, financial companies, payment institutions, electronic money institutions and credit intermediaries.
In this capacity, Banco de Portugal:
- Regulates, oversees and sanctions the conduct of supervised institutions offering retail banking products and services;
- Promotes the financial information and education of bank customers.
Banking conduct supervision aims to ensure transparency of the information provided to customers by the supervised entities offering banking products and services and to ensure compliance with the regulatory framework for these products and services, thereby contributing to the efficiency and stability of the financial system.
The banking conduct supervision work carried out by Banco de Portugal is described in detail each year in the Banking Conduct Supervision Report and in the Banking Conduct Supervision Report and in the Synopsis of Banking Conduct Supervision Activities (Sinopse de Atividades de Supervisão Comportamental – in Portuguese only).
Products and services covered
Banco de Portugal's banking conduct supervision covers:
- Bank deposits;
- Housing loans, consumer credit, corporate credit and other credit (except to finance operations on financial instruments);
- Payment instruments (including cards, transfers, cheques and direct debits).
The sale of other financial products, even by credit institutions, is not subject to market conduct supervision by Banco de Portugal.
Supervised institutions
- Credit institutions, financial companies, payment institutions and electronic money institutions having their head office in Portugal;
- Branches of credit institutions, payment institutions and electronic money institutions having their head office in European Union countries and branches of credit institutions and electronic money institutions having their head office in third countries;
- Credit intermediaries.
Unsupervised entities
Banco de Portugal does not supervise pawnshops (i.e. offering credit collateralised by goods – usually gold, silver or jewellery).
Banco de Portugal is not responsible for regulating, overseeing or sanctioning these entities, nor for analysing complaints regarding their operation.