Portugal intervenes to salvage crisis-hit BES bank

LISBON: Portugal will inject 4.4 billion euros ($5.9 billion) into the crisis-hit Banco Espirito Santo (BES), central bank governor Carlos Costa announced on Sunday (Monday in Manila), amid fears of a catastrophic bank run.

The country’s third-largest banking group will be split into two entities, with its toxic assets isolated in a “bad bank” and its healthier assets regrouped in a new bank called simply Novo Banco, Costa said.