frequent questions
glossary
What is a basic bank account?
Access to the credit intermediary activity
List of authorised credit intermediaries
How to protect yourself from online fraud?
Know your rights when making payments in Europe.
Do you know what the gross domestic product is? What about inflation? (only in Portuguese)
Key tips to protect yourself when choosing online or mobile banking services.
Since 1 January 2018, the Banco de Portugal has been responsible for authorising and registering all the natural or legal persons wanting to carry out credit intermediary activity.
The credit intermediaries authorised to carry out this activity in Portugal are published in a list issued by the Banco de Portugal.
The Banco de Portugal discloses information on the number of applications submitted, approved and rejected on a monthy basis. This information relates to natural or legal persons applying for authorisation to carry out credit intermediary activity. It does not cover communications on credit institutions, financial companies, payment institutions and electronic money institutions wanting to operate as credit intermediaries, nor cross-border activity notifications from other Member States' competent national authorities on the exercise of this activity in Portugal – lists for which are available on this Website.
Until December 31st 2023, 8902 authorisation requests had been received, of which 82 were under review by the Banco de Portugal on that day. 6512 authorisation requests were approved and 2308 were rejected.
Source: Banco de Portugal
After the request for authorisation to carry out credit intermediary activity is received, Banco de Portugal has 90 days to notify the applicant of its decision on the request. In case of omissions or errors in the authorisation request submitted, the applicant is asked to address them, with the time period for analysing the request increasing to 180 days.
Following authorisation, the credit intermediary must be registered. As a rule, Banco de Portugal's official process for this takes place within 30 days of the authorisation notification.
On December 31st 2023, there were 5822 credit intermediaries registered, of which 5798 were authorised by the Banco de Portugal and 24 by competent authorities of other Member States of the European Union.
The authorisation granted by the Banco de Portugal for the exercise of credit intermediation activities may lapse (namely, if the credit intermediary expressly renounces the authorisation) or be withdrawn. The lapse or the withdrawal of the authorisation implies the deletion of the credit intermediary from the register.
Until December 31st 2023, the authorisation granted to 584 credit intermediaries has lapsed and the Banco de Portugal withdrawn the authorisation granted to 126 credit intermediaries.
List of registered credit intermediaries (xlsx)
List of entities qualified to operate as credit intermediaries
List of credit institutions, financial companies, payment institutions and electronic money institutions providing credit intermediation services or consultancy services regarding credit contracts in which they do not participate as lenders
Credit intermediaries – what they are
Credit intermediaries – authorized