| Banco Comercial Português | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Public Euronext: BCP |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Headquarters |  Porto, Portugal |
| Industry | Banking |
| Revenue |  € 4,638 billion (2006) |
| Employees | 21 462 (2006) |
| Subsidiaries | Millennium bcp Millennium bim Millennium bank |
| Website | BCP Homepage |
Banco Comercial Português ("Portuguese Commercial Bank"), also known as BCP was founded in 1985 and currently is the major private bank of Portugal, member of the Euronext 100 stock index; current CEO is Filipe Pinhal. BCP is based in Porto but its operations are headquarted in Oeiras. It operates a branch brand dubbed and restyled in 2004 as Millennium BCP. The main shareholders are Portugal's Banco Português de Investimento with 8.87 percent, the Dutch Eureko group with 7.0 percent, Joe Berardo with 6.8 percent, US bank JP Morgan 5.09 percent, Spanish bank Sabadell 4.0 percent and Energias de Portugal 2.94 percent. It has nearly 4.3 million customers throughout the world and has over 900 branches. In 2006, it reported a profit of 780 million euros, an increase of 25.0 percent from the 2005 figure. It is ranked at 453 in the Forbes Global 2000 (2007).
History
BCP was founded in 1985 by Jardim Gonçalves and a group of investors from Porto region. Since 2004 it operates a branch brand dubbed and restyled as Millennium BCP, following a process of amalgamating all the brand names and complete incorporation of all commercial structures of the group's retail banking:
- Nova Rede (the bank's brand for his own network of retail banking branches since 1989)
- Crédibanco (network of branches created by the BCP itself in 1993)
- Banco Português do Atlântico (acquired in 1995 and incorporated in 2000)
- Banco Mello (acquired in 2000 and incorporated in 2000)
- Banco Pinto e Sotto Mayor (acquired in 2000)
In October 25, 2007, a smaller portuguese bank, BPI - Banco Português de Investimento (Investment Portuguese Bank) offered a fusion with BCP. The board of BCP initially refused as long as terms were not be revised. By the 21st of November, the two corporations seemed to be reaching an agreement, and the fusion looked inevitable. BPI itself is the result of an amalgamation of several minor banks (Banco Fonsecas & Burnay + Banco de Fomento Exterior + Banco Borges & Irmão). However, the fusion talks failed and the two banks didn't reach an agreement.
Crime allegations
In 2007, Millennium BCP faced turmoil amid probes of its accounts by crime investigators, the central bank (BdP - Banco de Portugal) and stock market authorities (CMVM - Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários). The preliminary findings of an investigation by the CMVM stock market authority noting the existence of several off-shore companies which Millennium BCP could have used to buy its own shares when it increased its capital in 2000 and 2001. The investigations were launched as a result of a complaint by a leading shareholder, Joe Berardo who owns 6.8 percent of the bank. He provided crime investigators with documents which, he alleged, showed that several offences had been committed. The president of Portugal Aníbal Cavaco Silva and Prime Minister José Sócrates said they would like to see a quick solution to the problem so that the credibility of the bank was not damaged.
External links
- Millennium bcp
- Bank Millennium Poland
- Millennium Bank Romania
- BCP Canada
- Banco Comercial de Macau (BCP in Macau)
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PSI-20 companies of Portugal |
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Altri · BCP · BES · BPI · Brisa · Cimpor · EDP · Galp · Impresa · Jerónimo Martins · Mota-Engil · Portucel · PT · PT Multimédia · REN · Semapa · Soares da Costa · Sonae Indústria · Sonaecom · Sonae SGPS |
