TOURISM LAW AND COMPETITION – A PORTUGUESE PERSPECTIVE 473 (iii) extending “the ongoing in-depth investigation into other support measures to assess whether Portugal’s planned restructuring support measures in favour of SATA are in line with EU rules on State aid to companies in difficulty”. F.2.5. The creation of a new national promotion bank The creation of Banco Português de Fomento (“BPF”) resulted in pre-notification contacts since October 2019, its formal notification to the Commission has been undertaken on 26 June 2020 and the Commission adopted the non- -opposition decision of 4 August163. In terms of organisational structure, BPF resulted from the merger between the existing Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento164 and PME Investimentos165 into SPGM, which was renamed BPF following the merger. BPF is owned by the Portuguese State, IAPMEI — Agência para a Competitividade e Inovação, I. P., Instituto do Turismo de Portugal, I. P. and AICEP — Agência para o Investimento e Comércio Externo de Portugal, E. P. E. with a share capital of 255 million euros166. BPF is qualified as a financial company167, not holding a banking licence and not taking any customer deposits, nor will any of its subsidiaries. Prudential and behavioural supervision will be taken by the Banco de Portugal and BPF is also subject to regular monitoring by the General Inspectorate for Finance (Inspecção- -Geral de Finanças) and the Portuguese Court of Auditors, in accordance with the law and within the scope of their respective powers. In terms of geographical scope of its activities, BPF focus mainly on the Portuguese economy. It may possibly be active in other Member States to the benefit of the European economy. 163 See case SA.55719 – Banco Português de Fomento. The Commission based its assessment “in particular Article 107(3)(c)” of the TFEU, which enables the same “to approve State aid measures implemented by Member States to facilitate the development of certain economic activities or of certain economic areas, subject to certain conditions”. For more information, see: https://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/case_details.cfm?proc_ code=3_SA_55719. 164 In 2014 and 2016, the Commission adopted two decisions on IFD [(SA.37824 (2014/N) and SA.42665 (2016/N)]. 165 PME is a State owned financial company incorporated in 1989 with a mission to promote the development and increase of the financing offer to Portuguese companies, notably SMEs in the non-financial sector in order to boost investment, development and corporate restructuring [see paragraph (5)]. 166 According to Decree Law no. 637/2020, of 7 September. 167 Under Article 6(1)(l) of the Portuguese General Rules on Credit Institutions and Financial Companies.
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