Portugal’s Finances minister praises Portugal’s banking system’s recovery and robustness but warns future sustainability will hang on new business models

Portugal’s Minister of Finances has issued a stark warning to Portugal’s banking sector to rely on new business models and not the economy in order to remain relevant and competitive in a changing market.

Speaking at the ‘8th Banking Sector of the Future’ conference organised by Negócios in Lisbon on Tuesday (November 18), Joaquim Miranda Sarmento praised Portugal’s banks for their recovery after the banking crisis 15 years ago, and its current robustness and greater resilience to withstand shocks to the system, but basically warned it had to adapt to new market trends.

The minister said that today Portugal’s banks could “show their face” in Europe after “a decade of strong adjustments” (read restructuring, recapitalisation and modernisation) following the 2008 sub-prime and sovereign debt crises.

“Today, it is an extremely resilient sector, profitable and with very good levels of capitalisation, and therefore is a sector that has changed and can show its face in Europe”, he said at the conference’s closing session.

Recalling developments of recent years, Miranda Sarmento also pointed out the “robustness”, “stability” and “reliability” of the national banking system, now “subject to regulation and supervision, and much more capable of preventing the mistakes made during the first decade of this century”, with the new European regulations legislated.

The minister also left a warning for the future that banking should find new business models, not being dependent on the progress of the economy.

“Future profitability will depend less on the macroeconomic context and more on the ability of institutions to reinvent business models, diversify their sources of revenue, accelerate digitisation processes and increasingly improve their operational efficiency,” said Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, before the audience of bankers.

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CEO of Millennium BCP, Miguel Maya calls fora return to 100% mortgages at the 8th ‘Banking of the Future Conference’ held in Lisbon, on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. ANTÓNIO COTRIM/LUSA
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