Portugal CTT Banco Postal to start operations in 2007

Banco Postal, the banking unit of Portugal’s post operator CTT-Correios de Portugal, will start operations in 2007, local business daily Diario Economico reported on March 28, 2006.

The basic structure of the new post bank will be established in 2006. Initially, banking services will be provided through 100 offices. The objective is to attain national coverage as soon as possible, CTT president Luis Nazare said.

Banco Postal’s target group includes young people, immigrants and the elderly.

The establishment of the new bank is connected also with the country’s biggest bank, state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD).

[Editor’s note: CGD was CTT’s first partner in the project for a post bank in Portugal, the Portuguese News Digest reported. CGD and CTT established the bank Banca Postal in 2002, but later CTT sold its stake to CGD. After Banca Postal ceased operation in 2004, CGD kept a preference right on a future post bank of CTT. CTT is obliged to present the project for the future post bank to CGD, and the bank should decide whether it would participate in it or not.]

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