Portuguese securities market regulator sees profits plunge

Portugal’s securities market regulator CMVM closed 2023 with profits down to €1.96 million, down 31% on the almost €3 million it made in 2022.

The institution led by Luís Laginha said that the fall was down to an increase in expenditure on staff and technology investments which surpassed the growth in revenues made.

“Income growth was 39% of growth in expenditure” states the report. The financial report for 2023 states that expenditure on staff increased €882,000, reflecting integral composition of the board and staff salary increases in the order of 3%, in line with other situations of a non-recurring nature”.

As part of its investment plan, the CMVM reveals that it invested €2.8 million in technology last year, with a part of this amount being co-financed by EU funding, which has enabled the CMVM to have a “greater and faster capacity to analyse and react to a market under its supervision.”

The CMVM applied 29 fines on companies and financial entities last year that brought in €1.2 million, up 34% on 2022. However, only 29% of this amount (€352.5,000) was accounted as a CMVM revenue; the rest was divided between the State and the Investors Compensation System.