Hundreds protest outside Portuguese bank to demand money back

Hundreds of people protested outside Portuguese bank Novo Banco in central Lisbon on Monday to demand back the money they lost in failed Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo (BES).

The customers, linked to Portuguese consumer associations, managed to cut off a main avenue in central Lisbon.

Some of the protestors tried to get inside the bank but were confronted by police officers.

The protest took place just several days after the Bank of Portugal received three bids to buy Novo Banco, the bank that emerged from the bailout of BES in August last year.

The current bidders for Novo Banco include New York investment firm Apollo, Chinese conglomerate Fosun International and insurance group Anbang. The bank is in the process of analyzing the bids.

On Friday last week, the "bad bank" which resulted from splitting up BES, reported negative equity amounting to 2.4 billion euros (2.65 billion U.S. dollars), meaning big losses for investors.

Former BES chairman, Ricardo Salgado, recently alleged that the Bank of Portugal was to blame for the fall of BES for having relied on government support.

Retail customers have held continuous protests to ask for their money back, with around 2,500 clients from Novo Banco who bought commercial paper totalling 527 million euros failing to have their money reimbursed, according to local media. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollars) Endite