Maria Luís Albuquerque

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Person.png Maria Luís Albuquerque  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(politician)
Maria Luís Albuquerque.png
Born16 September 1967
Braga, Portugal
NationalityPortuguese
Alma materLusíada University, Technical University of Lisbon
PartySocial Democratic Party (Portugal)
Portuguese Minister of Finance 2013-15 who introduced "reform" program in agreement with big banks, including Morgan Stanley. Attended Bilderberg 2016. Joined Morgan Stanley board in 2022.

Employment.png Portugal/Minister of Finance

In office
2 July 2013 - 26 November 2015

Maria Luís Albuquerque is a Portuguese politician. She was Minister of State and Finance between 2013 and 2015. She attended the 2016 Bilderberg meeting.

Early life and education

Albuquerque is married and has three children. She graduated in economics in 1991 from Universidade Lusíada, in Lisbon, and holds a Master's degree (1997) in Monetary and Financial Economics from ISEG, Technical University of Lisbon.

Career

Albuquerque worked at the Directorate General of Treasury from 1996 to 1999; at the office of Higher Technical Studies and Economic Forecasts of the Ministry of Economy from 1999 to 2001 and as an advisor to the Secretary of State for Treasury and Finance in 2001. Between 2001 and 2007 she was director of the Department of Financial Management of REFER, the railway infrastructure public company. From 2007 to 2011 she was head of Issuing and Markets Department at the Portuguese Debt Management Agency. She was a lecturer at Universidade Lusíada between 1991 and 2006.

Albuquerque became Secretary of State for Treasury and Finance between June 2011 and October 2012 and Secretary of State for Treasury between October 2012 and June 2013. In such capacity, she followed Eurogroup and Ecofin matters as alternate to the then Minister of State and Finance.

Minister of State and Finance, 2013-2015

Albuquerque's appointment was followed by the resignation of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Portas, who had openly criticized her nomination.[1] Questions were raised after she denied that the Government had been informed about "swap" operations performed under the Government of Prime Minister José Sócrates, while the former minister of finance, Vitor Gaspar, admitted that he had been informed.[citation needed]

As finance minister, Albuquerque has been supporting the "reform" program advocated by Portugal's creditors and put in place by Gaspar.[2] In January 2015, she announced that Portugal would follow Ireland with an early repayment of bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund after borrowing costs fell and the country was able to sell 30-year bonds.[3] At the time, Portugal's economy was growing again after a three-year recession caused by a debt crisis and austerity.[4]

Also, Albuquerque bolstered Portugal's bank resolution fund (Fundo de Resolução) in 2014 by earmarking 5.4 billion euros in Treasury loans. In early August 2014, she spent 4.9 billion euros to rescue Banco Espírito Santo, the country's second-largest lender, mostly from public funds. The bank was split into a regular bank called Novo Banco and a "bad bank" that inherited unserviced debt.[5]

In her position as finance minister, Albuquerque also was member of the board of governors at the African Development Bank,[6] the European Stability Mechanism and the European Investment Bank.

Following the 2014 European elections, it was believed that Passos Coelho was going to nominate Luís Albuquerque as Portugal's member of the European Commission, a job that eventually went to Carlos Moedas. At the time, there was speculation in the Portuguese press that Luís Albuquerque was not nominated because Jean-Claude Juncker would not guarantee her a weighty portfolio in the commission.[7]

Life after politics

Following her party's defeat after the 2015 national elections where it won the single largest vote with 38.6% securing almost 47% of the seats in the Assembly before a left-wing coalition has risen to power, Luís Albuquerque left her office as finance minister and became a non-executive director at Arrow Global, a UK-based provider of debt purchase solutions.[citation needed]

In November 2022, Albuquerque announced that she will join on the Supervisory Board of Morgan Stanley. The economist will thus start functions in a bank with which she negotiated while in government. In 2013, in the midst of the troika bailout and when she held the position of Secretary of State for the Treasury in the Passos Coelho government, Maria Luís Albuquerque renegotiated with several banks - including Morgan Stanley - the "swap" contracts they had with the state.[8]


 

Event Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/20169 June 201612 June 2016Germany
Dresden
The 2016 Bilderberg meeting took place in Dresden, Germany.
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References

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