According to the document, which was filed on Monday to Portugal's securities markets authority, the CMVM, the company still has a licence to operate as a bank - even though it cannot carry on traditional banking activities such as taking deposits or making loans - but the Bank of Portugal has already asked the European Central Bank for authorisation to withdraw its licence.

According to the BES report, the “moment of withdrawal is now closer” - after which event the entity will be liquidated.

“The withdrawal of the authorisation should happen before the sale of ['good bank'] Novo Banco or, at the latest, by 3 August of 2016," it states.

Groups defending the rights of small investors with shares in BES have repeatedly complained of a lack of information about when the bank might be liquidated and the fact that BES has been landed with ever more liabilities as a result of Bank of Portugal decisions - meaning that shareholders and creditors are likely to be able to recover less of their investments.

BES had a 2015 net loss of €2.6 billion, mostly resulting from the Bank of Portugal's decision in December to transfer to it liability for five non-subordinated loans with a total value of €2.2 billion. The loans had initially been part of Novo Banco's liabilities.

Without the transfer, the 2015 net loss would have been €360.617 million, thanks to the revaluation of assets and liabilities to take account of currency changes and provisions made to cover potential losses from court cases against BES, which have been multiplying, the report and accounts states.

At year-end BES had negative shareholder capital of €5.3 billion, against €2.7 billion a year earlier.