From headquarters to housing rules: the first year of Santos Pereira in the BdP

Quando took office, Santos Pereira stressed the importance of the independence of the central bank and signaled that he wanted to make changes both in terms of regulation and internally, in the organic of the institution.

The permanence of his predecessor in the institution as a consultant to the administration also became a subject, so much so that a reform agreement was made with Centeno, with Santos Pereira also advancing with efforts to end the consultant figure.

According to the governor, the BdP will save EUR 2.2 million with the reform agreement with Mário Centeno, taking into account the values to which it was entitled if it stayed in the organization. He also ensured that the Centenian reform “was a mutual agreement, there was no redundancy or favor” and “he obeyed all the rules defined”.

In another disagreement with Centeno, Santos Pereira wanted to change the plans for the new building of the BdP, whose approval had provoked controversy, for having occurred near the end of the mandate of the then governor, but also due to doubts about possible costs.

In May 2025, the BdP announced that it had signed a contract with Fidelity to acquire a building in Lisbon (in the old Feira Popular, in Entrecampos) for future facilities of the institution, for 192 million euros, but a report from the Observer that the value would be higher gave rise to a political controversy and the Government said it would request an audit.

This year, the successor Álvaro Santos Pereira decided to change the project, from two buildings to one, a change that will cost less than 35 million to 40 million euros in relation to the previous solution, having agreed to purchase for 165 million, said at a hearing.

Another issue that still covered the central bank was macroeconomic forecasts, in particular due to issues raised by the PSD, which wanted to call Mário Centeno and the chairman of the Public Finance Council, Nazaré Costa Cabral, to the parliament, to explain the divergence of forecasts from the budgetary surplus reached in 2025.

Despite the questions concerning the Centeno period, Álvaro Santos Pereira argued that the predictions of the institution's technicians are exempt and that the team that prepares the projections has the best technicians in the area.

“ The BdP’s predictions are technical, today the BdP’s technicians’ predictions are exempt,” the governor said at a hearing in parliament.

Santos Pereira assured that he never interfered “one tenth” in economic forecasts, adding that he has worked for nearly 15 years on economic forecasting issues and that “the BdP technical team that makes the economic and budgetary forecasts is the best” he has seen “in the whole world”.

The governor also advanced with changes in housing, after several warnings about the risks of measures for young people, having reduced the recommended effort rate for credits from 50% to 45% and changed the maximum maturity to 40 years for people up to 35 years, for contracts with evaluation from August 1.

The central bank has published a new Macroprudential Recommendation on new consumer credit agreements for housing and consumption, the main amendment of which is the reduction of the indicator measuring the effort rate in the event of a sharp increase in interest rates.

In addition, the simplification of exceptions to this limit has also been determined, and there is only one that allows 10% of the total amount of credits granted by each institution in each semester to have an effort rate exceeding 45%.

On the other hand, the credit maturity rules change to 40 years for borrowers aged 35 and 35 years for borrowers over 35.

At the bank, Santos Pereira also said that the BdP is studying a fee on banks to cover supervisory costs.

In this year of office, the governor also went through a controversy due to the purchase of shares of companies when he was already in charge of the institution.

Santos Pereira bought titles from Geronimo Martins, Galp Energia, Nestlé and Navigator between December 2025 and January 2026, and was forced by the European Central Bank (ECB) to dispose of these shares in the meantime.

According to him, he had added value of 3,361 euros with the sale of these shares, an amount that he donated to the Make-A-Wish foundation.

In the field of politics and today, some publications made by the governor in his personal account in X (ex-Twitter) are also to be noted, where he commented, for example, the response to storms at the beginning of the year and the “eventual” crisis in restoration.