The loan was started in 2016 within the scope of longer-term refinancing operations, Caixa said in a statement.

"CGD Portugal thus no longer has any ECB financing, bringing to an end a policy of gradually reducing dependency on this type of resources that had been followed in recent years," the statement said.

According to the bank chaired by Paulo Macedo, CGD reached the highest level of financing with the ECB in the first quarter of 2011, with €11.2 billion, which coincided with the peak of the international financial crisis, and which particularly affected European sovereign debt.

"Since the beginning of the decade, this is the first time that CGD Portugal has not had any financing from the ECB," the state bank said.

For CGD, the repayment, "is another step in the process of normalising its activity and its balance sheet and demonstrates Caixa's robust and comfortable liquidity situation."