"No, it was not by default, there is no decision by the Government that does not pass a joint decision by the Council of Ministers," said Mário Centeno at a regimental hearing of the Parliament's Budget and Finance Commission (COF).

Mário Centeno also stated that "there are no transfers or loans made against anyone's default", explaining that "the support file for the Prime Minister arrived a couple of hours late, and the Prime Minister, when he gave the answer he gave, didn't have the updated information in front of him".

Expresso reported on Thursday that the Resolution Fund received yet another public loan worth 850 million euros for the recapitalisation of Novo Banco.

The news came after António Costa guaranteed on the same day in parliament, in the biweekly debate, that there would be no further aid until the results of the audit being carried out on Novo Banco were known.

On Friday, the Prime Minister explained that he was not informed by the Ministry of Finance of the payment of 850 million euros, having apologised to the Left Block for the wrong information transmitted during the biweekly debate.

The Finance Minister on Tuesday admitted, in an interview to the TSF, a communication failure between his office and that of the prime minister regarding the capital injection in Novo Banco, but "not a financial failure", which would be disastrous.

"We can admit - and there will have been a delay - a failure in communication between the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister at the time of the biweekly debate," said Mário Centeno.

However, he added, what did not happen was a "financial failure", which "would have a disastrous character for the financial and banking system in Portugal", considering that Portugal - in the midst of a severe crisis like the current one - "cannot afford to put a bank at risk ".