"After 10 April, Santoro Finance disrespected what it had agreed [with CaixaBank] and asked for alteration to the contractual documents", the bank said in a communiqué to the Portuguese Stock Market Regulator (CMVM).

Adding, "Banco BPI hereby states that the understanding that was announced to the market on 10 April will have not come into effect".

A week ago (10 April), BPI told the market it had been told that its two largest shareholders CaixaBank (44.10%) and Santoro Finance (18.58%), had “successfully” completed negotiations to find a solution to a situation of non-compliance by the bank to limit large risks (exposure to Angola).

The lack of details about the deal led the CMVM to suspend dealing in BPI shares last Monday, a situation that lasted all week as no “relevant information” was released.