The deputy of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Carlos Silva, accused the Bloco de Esquerda (BE) of wanting to “end the Portuguese banking”. The statement was made in the debate, in a plenary meeting of the Assembly of the Republic, about the bills presented by BE, PS, PSD, PAN and PCP that provide, in different ways, the limitation or prohibition of bank fees.
After his intervention, Carlos Silva responded to a request for clarification from BE, and stressed that the Social Democrats do not agree “with your principle of tassels for all”.
The deputy referred to the ban on charging bank commissions that blockers propose. As an example, the proposal to amend BE to Decree-Law no. 3/2010, of 5 January, which enshrines the prohibition on charging charges for the provision of payment services and for carrying out transactions in ATMs, provides for the prohibition to credit institutions to “charge any charges to account holders targeted for handling bank transactions, namely payments for services and transfers, on electronic platforms operated by third parties, namely through the MB WAY mobile application”.
Earlier, in his speech, Carlos Silva questioned the potential side effects of the left-wing parties’ proposals on limiting the collection of commissions. “How many more commissions will be increased in addition to what the Portuguese already pay?”. The Social Democratic deputy also fears that these proposals may cause redundancies, as they put pressure on the bank’s profitability. “How many more workers are going to have to be fired?” He asked.
Carlos Silva accused the PS of “demagogy” that creates “more risk for Portugal”.
Fernando Anastácio, a socialist deputy, in addition to repudiating the statement that the Portuguese Banking Association issued yesterday, accused the bank of “systematically increasing the costs of financial access, looking at consumers as a bottomless pit”.
And he said that the PS defends that “the costs of accessing these services must have a justified basis”, at a time when “what we are seeing [os preços das comissões] exceeds the limits of what is reasonable ”.
In response to Fernando Anastácio, Carlos Silva stressed that PSD cannot “follow many of your suggestions” and considered the limits to the MB Way that PS put in its bill “unacceptable”. “DECO itself said that the price must be proportional, that is not what is in your proposals. Not even foreign platforms will want to operate in Portugal, which harms competition ”, said the Social Democrat deputy.
Regarding financial transactions carried out on electronic platforms, the PS bill defines, as a general rule, the respective prohibition on charging bank fees of up to one hundred euros per transaction, or 500 euros sent in transactions on the platform during the period of one month, or 50 transfers sent within a month.
–
