Macau (MNA) – The Macau Government has revoked the authorisation given to Portuguese bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) to operate an offshore branch in the territory, a release in the Official Gazette reveals.
In January of this year the offshore licence of BPI was also revoked, with the two Portuguese banks being the only remaining banks authorised to have offshore operations in Macau under offshore regulations implemented in 1987.
CGD announced in 2016 that it had stopped receiving deposits for its offshore operations, some months after Portuguese bank BPI had announced the same.
As first reported by Macau Business, the decision by the two banks to terminate operations was not for financial but reputation reasons, with shareholders not wanting to hold operations in tax havens.
Financial reports from the two offshore operations seem to corroborate this, with operations only becoming unattractive after the decisions taken in Lisbon to discontinue the activity.
The Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM) explained to Macau Business that ‘withdrawal from the Macau market by the two offshore branches was decided by their head offices in Portugal due to changes in their groups’ overall business strategies’.
CGD is the parent company of Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU), with MNA having previously revealed that the Portuguese bank had demanded “massive cuts” to BNU’s operations despite the record gains shown by the local bank in recent years.
