General Daily Briefing — Saturday, 25 April 2026
BdP's 2025 supervision report forces banks to refund €8.9 million for improper charges and logs 33,375 complaints and a 45% jump in illicit-activity cases. Conselho de Ministros overhauls the ITV regime. 600 Lisbon cultural agents accuse EGEAC of emptying out the 25 de Abril.
Good morning from Lisbon. Portugal wakes on Saturday, 25 April 2026 — Dia da Liberdade, 52 years on from the Carnation Revolution. While the official ceremonies fill São Bento and the Avenida, three quieter stories are setting the institutional weather: a behavioural-supervision crackdown that hands €8.9 million back to bank customers, a Conselho-de-Ministros overhaul of vehicle inspection, and a Lisbon culture row over how the city is — and is not — marking the day itself.
Banks Forced to Refund €8.9 Million in Improper Charges — BdP's Behavioural Supervision Logs 33,375 Customer Complaints, 51 Contraventions and a 45% Jump in Illicit Activity Cases
Banco de Portugal's 2025 Behavioural Supervision Report dropped quietly on Friday: €8.9 million returned to customers for improper interest and commissions, 33,375 complaints filed (22,795 within BdP's perimeter), 6.3% with indications of infraction, 3,297 specific determinations, 418 recommendations and 124 warnings at 128 institutions, and €6.3 million in fines across 51 contravention proceedings against 24 banks. The illicit-activity workstream surged by 45% to 479 investigations — over half involving fraud schemes — and the new SEPA beneficiary-verification service cut payer-manipulation fraud by 21% in its first five months. Cumulatively, BdP has clawed back over €65 million in improperly charged interest and fees from Portuguese banks since 2019.
Council of Ministers Greenlights ITV Overhaul — New Decree-Law Reshapes Inspection-Centre Network, Strengthens IMT Sanctions and Locks In the March 2026 Rule That Lets Recall-Stalled Cars Fail Automatically
Wednesday's Conselho de Ministros approved a complete rewrite of the legal framework governing periodic technical vehicle inspection — the IPO, known to most expats as the ITV. The decree-law facilitates new centres in low-density municipalities and the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas, replaces the minimum-distance rule with a service-coverage criterion, broadens IMT supervisory power to include real-time and unannounced audits, and recalibrates the sanctions table upward — including a fast-track to suspend a centre's accreditation pending appeal. The text also enshrines, in primary legislation, the 1 March 2026 rule that turns an unrepaired manufacturer recall into automatic IPO failure. The 2026 inspection price for light vehicles is €37.47.
'Festas Sem Abril' — 600 Lisbon Cultural Agents Petition Against EGEAC's Hollowed-Out 25 Abril Programme as Moedas Calls It a Political Attack on Holiday Eve
Around 600 Lisbon cultural figures — led by Ana Sofia Paiva, João Monge, Pedro Fernandes Duarte and Tiago Santos, with public support from Cristina Branco, Carlos Mendes, André Gago and Tiago Torres da Silva — have signed a petition titled “Festas de Abril sem Abril”, accusing the EGEAC municipal company and Mayor Carlos Moedas's city hall of progressively emptying 25 de Abril out of its own commemorations. Specific complaint: the absence, for the second consecutive year, of the traditional all-night concert on the Avenida between 24 and 25 April. Moedas (PSD) calls the petition “a political attack”, points to a €250,000 envelope across 60 initiatives, and invokes his own father's persecution by the PIDE. The 2024 50th-anniversary spend was nearly €1 million across roughly 100 initiatives. The Câmara opposition signals support for an Assembleia Municipal debate in May.
