The audiences are to start at 9am with the chief executive of Millennium BCP, Nuno Amado, with meetings with other bank chiefs scheduled hourly until lunchtime, and then in the afternoon at 4pm, before the day's last audience, at 5pm, with the president of the Portuguese Banks Association, Faria de Oliveira.


Last week, Cavaco da Silva called in business and employer organisations and trade union federations, after the right-of-centre government was forced to resign when parliament voted to reject its programme.


It had been in office barely two weeks, having won the 4 October election but lost its majority. The Socialist Party has concluded agreements with three other left-of-centre parties that these groups' leaders say make viable an alternative government, but the president has expressed reluctance to swear in an administration dependent on forces that oppose euro-zone deficit rules and NATO.