Biography

João Freitas is the Head of the Resolution Department at Banco de Portugal as well as Secretary-General of Fundo de Garantia de Depósitos (the Portuguese DGS) and of Fundo de Resolução (the Portuguese resolution fund).

He has participated in the development of the resolution framework both in Portugal and in the EU, having participated in the legislative processes concerning the BRRD, the Regulation on the SRM and in the discussions on the intergovernmental agreement on the transfer and mutualisation of contributions to the SRF.

As a practitioner, he played an active role in the resolution of Banco Espírito Santo (the third largest banking group in Portugal at the time) and of BANIF. Those cases involved the use of the bridge bank tool (BES, 2014) and of the sale of business tool and asset separation tool (BANIF, 2015). He was also a member of the team responsible for managing the sale of the bridge bank created as part of the resolution of Banco Espírito Santo (Novo Banco).

João Freitas led the creation of the resolution function at Banco de Portugal and has headed the Resolution Department since its establishment. He has been serving as an alternate member of the Plenary Session of the Single Resolution Board (SRB).

He was also responsible for the setup of the Portuguese resolution fund in 2012 and has since then been in charge of the day-to-day operations of the Fund, including its deployment to finance resolution measures in an amount exceeding EUR 8 billion.

João Freitas holds a degree in Economics from Universidade do Minho and a Master’s degree in Finance from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.