Banco de Portugal is the central bank of the Portuguese Republic.
It was founded on November 19, 1846, in Lisbon, where it is based. It arose from the merger of Banco de Lisboa and Companhia Confiança Nacional. Founded under the status of public limited company, until its nationalization in 1974, it was mostly private.
Banco de Portugal is responsible for the prudential supervision of credit institutions and financial companies.
It is also responsible for regulating, supervising and promoting the proper functioning of payment systems, managing the country’s external resources and acting as an intermediary of the State’s international monetary relations, as well as advising the Government on economic and financial matters. The Bank is responsible for collecting and preparing monetary, financial, foreign exchange and balance of payments statistics.