dropcap]S[/dropcap]everal bankers came out in favour of a partial privatisation of state-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) Thursday.

Fernando Ulrich, Chairman of Banco Português de Investimento (BPI) said that if partially privatised, the CGD could be “an important player in helping consolidate the banking sector”.

Ricardo Salgado, head of Banco Espírito Santo (BES) agreed with Ulrich so long as the CGD remained in state hands. Asked whether this was a good time to privatise a bank, Salgado replied that the “state has to privatise”.

Luís Mira Amaral, former chairman of CGD and currently at the held of Luso-Angolan Banco BIC, defended that the CGD should be privatised 100%, as “it is not a great instrument to help Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME)” so “if the CGD is only to finance large operations for large capital, it does not need to be state-owned.

All three were speaking at a conference organised by Media group Impresa.

Opposing ideas came from some former politicians, but no bankers.