Maria Luís Albuquerque
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Maria Luís Casanova Morgado Dias de Albuquerque (; born 16 September 1967) is a Portuguese politician who is the European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union under the
Second Von der Leyen Commission The second von der Leyen Commission is the current European Commission, in office since 1 December 2024. It consists of one commissioner from each of the member states of the European Union – including Ursula von der Leyen, its President of t ...
. She served as
Minister of State and Finance Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
between 2013 and 2015.


Early life and education

Albuquerque is married and has three children. She graduated in economics in 1991 from Universidade Lusíada, in
Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
, and holds a
Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
(1997) in Monetary and Financial Economics from ISEG,
Technical University of Lisbon The Technical University of Lisbon (UTL; , ) was a Portuguese public university. It was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of preexisting schools, and comprised the faculties and institutes of veterinary medicine; agricultural scienc ...
.


Early 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 A Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Economic Affairs, or Department of Commerce is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the economy or economic policy. List Examples of such mi ...
from 1999 to 2001 and as an advisor to the Secretary of State for the 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 Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
. She was a lecturer at Universidade Lusíada between 1991 and 2006.


Political career

At the XIX Constitutional Government, Maria Luís Albuquerque became Secretary of State for the Treasury and Finance between June 2011 and October 2012 and Secretary of State for the Treasury between October 2012 and June 2013. In such capacity, she followed
Eurogroup The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for the informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone—those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency. The group has 20 members ...
and
Ecofin The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) is one of the oldest configurations of the Council of the European Union and is composed of the economics and finance ministers of the 27 European Union member states, as well as Budget Ministe ...
matters as alternate to the then
Minister of State and Finance Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
.


Minister of Finance (2013–2015)

Albuquerque's appointment was followed by the resignation of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Paulo Portas Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas (born 12 September 1962, ) is a Portuguese media and political figure, who has, since the 1990s, been one of Portugal's leading conservative politicians. He was the leader of one of Portugal's right-wing parties, ...
, who had openly criticized her nomination. Questions were raised after she denied that the Government had been informed about "swap" operations performed under the Government of Prime Minister
José Sócrates José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he acted ...
, while the former minister of finance, Vitor Gaspar, admitted that he had been informed. She is only the second woman to hold the office of finance minister in Portugal, after
Manuela Ferreira Leite Maria Manuela Dias Ferreira Leite (; born 3 December 1940) is a Portuguese economist, pundit and retired politician. Ferreira Leite served as Minister of Education in Aníbal Cavaco Silva's third government, from 1993 to 1995, and as Minister ...
. As finance minister, Albuquerque supported the reform program advocated by Portugal's creditors and put in place by Gaspar. In January 2015, she announced that Portugal would follow Ireland with an early repayment of bailout loans from the
International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...
after borrowing costs fell and the country was able to sell 30-year bonds. At the time, Portugal's economy was growing again after a three-year
recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction that occurs when there is a period of broad decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be tr ...
caused by a
debt crisis Debt crisis is a situation in which a government (nation, state/province, county, or city etc.) loses the ability of paying back its governmental debt. When the expenditures of a government are more than its tax revenues for a prolonged period, ...
and
austerity In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...
. Also, Albuquerque bolstered Portugal's
bank resolution Banking regulation and supervision refers to a form of financial regulation which subjects banks to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, enforced by a financial regulatory authority generally referred to as banking supervisor, with ...
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 Banco Espírito Santo (, BES) was a Portugal, Portuguese bank based in Lisbon that on 3 August 2014 was split in two banks: Novo Banco, which kept its healthy operations, and a "bad bank" to keep its toxic assets. It once was the second-largest ...
, the country's second-largest lender, mostly from public funds. The bank was split into a regular bank called
Novo Banco Novo Banco, SA, trading as Novobanco (, ), is a major Portuguese financial bank headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Following the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, Novobanco has been designated as a Significant Institut ...
and a "bad bank" that inherited unserviced debt. 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 The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
, a job that eventually went to
Carlos Moedas Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas (born 10 August 1970) is a Portuguese civil engineer, economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (Portugal), Social Democratic Party (PSD), who is the current Mayor of Lisbon. From 2014 until 2019, Moeda ...
. At the time, there was speculation in the Portuguese press that Luís Albuquerque was not nominated because
Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who was List of prime ministers of Luxembourg, prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also was List ...
would not guarantee her a weighty portfolio in the commission.


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 but stayed on as a member of parliament until 2019 In June 2016, Luís Albuquerque made headlines when she wrote in an article published in business daily ''
Jornal de Negócios ''Jornal de Negócios'' (meaning ''Business Newspaper'' in English) is a Portuguese language business newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southweste ...
'' that "it is public knowledge that
Caixa Geral de Depósitos Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) () is a Portugal, Portuguese state-owned banking corporation, and the largest bank in Portugal, established in Lisbon in 1876. CGD now has presence in 23 countries spanning four continents through branches, repres ...
(CGD) granted large loans in the past, without sufficient guarantees and using practices that are difficult to justify to the public interest." Shortly after, Portugal's government ordered an independent audit of the country's largest bank, state-owned CGD. In 2021, Luís Albuquerque was the Portuguese government's candidate to become the chair of the
European Securities and Markets Authority The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is an agency of the European Union located in Paris. ESMA replaced the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) on 1 January 2011. It is one of three European Supervisory Authori ...
; however, she lost out in a distant third place to Verena Ross.


Other activities


International organizations

*
African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB, also known as BAD in French) is a multilateral development finance institution, headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and ...
, ex-officio member of the board of governors (2013–2015) *
European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was ...
, ex-officio member of the board of governors (2013–2015) *
European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...
, ex-officio member of the board of governors (2013–2015)


Corporate boards

* Morgan Stanley Europe, independent non-executive member of the board of directors (since 2022)Kathryn Carlson and Aitor Hernández-Morales (25 September 2024)
Financial services role goes to Albuquerque ― but she brings baggage
 ''
Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
''.
* Arrow Global, independent non-executive member of the board of directors (2016–2021)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albuquerque, Maria Luis 1967 births Women government ministers of Portugal Living people 20th-century Portuguese economists Portuguese women economists Technical University of Lisbon alumni Finance ministers of Portugal Female finance ministers 21st-century Portuguese women politicians 21st-century Portuguese politicians 21st-century Portuguese economists European commissioners (2024–2029) Portuguese European commissioners