Protesters invade Portugal's Novo Banco headquarters

Over a hundred protesters swooped on the headquarters of Novo Banco, the bank that emerged from the bankruptcy of the Espirito Santo Financial Group, here Thursday, with some demonstrators managing to enter the bank.

Around 150 victims of the Banco Espirito Santo collapse, who had bought commercial paper, stood outside the building shouting and banging on the glass windows to pressure the bank to get their lost money back.

Over 2,000 people bought commercial paper through the bank and saw their investments wiped out last year when the beleaguered family-controlled conglomerate collapsed and the surviving part of the bank was re-named Novo Banco.

Novo Banco, headed by CEO Eduardo Stock da Cunha, had assured that clients would get their money back but the victims are still fighting against a slow justice system and don't know whether they will be reimbursed.

The president of the association representing investors affected, which organized the protest, told the Portuguese Lusa News Agency that the administration of the Novo Banco was "completely hamstrung by the Bank of Portugal."

Ricardo Angelo told Lusa that the association would be visiting all the potential buyers of the bank.

Most of the bidders for Novo Banco have been ruled out by the Bank of Portugal and there are now only five candidates out of 17, according to local media reports.

The finalists now include Spanish bank Santander, China's Fosun and Anbang Insurance, and the U.S investment firms Apollo Global Management and Cerberus.

Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho told reporters on Thursday that the need for those affected to protest was "legitimate" but refused to comment in the successive invasions of bank branches. Endit