Mourinho Félix said during a meeting of the budget, finance and administrative modernisation commission that the bank did not need another injection of state money and would not be able to.

He said the bank's recapitalisation in 2016 of almost €5 billion had been a "unique" case in Europe and enabled the bank to "remain 100% public."

Ailing state-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depositos had a huge amount of bad loans in 2016 and had to bolster its capital, following two other bank rescues in 2014 and 2015.