Executive Search | Financial Services | Portugal
Key Takeaway
Financial and insurance activities contribute roughly 4% of Portugal’s GDP (INE). In addition, the five largest banks hold around three quarters of banking assets (Banco de Portugal). Most of those banks are now controlled from Madrid, Paris or other foreign capitals. As a result, senior roles combine local leadership with reporting to a parent group abroad. With so few top seats, the best candidate usually sits at a competitor or outside the country. For that reason, institutions that start searching early have a clear advantage.
Data current as of October 2026.
Portuguese banks have come a long way since the collapse of Banco Espírito Santo in 2014. Since then, non-performing loans have fallen sharply and Novo Banco has agreed to join a new owner. Meanwhile, MB Way has changed how people pay. Global banks have also built large technology and operations centres in Lisbon and Porto. Each shift needs a leader, and many of these jobs did not exist five years ago.
Executive Search in Financial Services Across Portugal: How Foreign Ownership, Digital Payments and the Return of Talent Are Redefining Senior Roles
Executive search for financial services in Portugal is a retained, research-led process for hiring senior leaders. It covers banks, insurers, asset and pension managers, payment institutions, fintechs and the Portuguese operations of international groups. Typical roles range from CEOs and CROs to CISOs, operations heads and independent directors.
For decades, the next CEO came up inside one of a handful of Lisbon banks. Usually, that person was well known on Avenida da Liberdade long before the appointment. Today, however, three forces are changing what boards need.
Foreign ownership
Santander Totta answers to Madrid, and BPI belongs to CaixaBank. In 2025, Novo Banco agreed to join France’s BPCE. Only Caixa Geral de Depósitos remains state-owned, while Millennium bcp has major foreign shareholders. As a result, boards need leaders who can run a Portuguese bank and still win capital and attention from a parent group abroad.
Digital payments
MB Way, run by SIBS on top of the Multibanco network, has become part of daily life. In addition, the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) has applied since January 2025. Banks therefore need product and technology leaders who can compete with fintechs and keep systems resilient at the same time. However, few people have done both.
The return of talent
After the 2011 bailout, many Portuguese bankers built careers in London, Madrid or Luxembourg. Now, some of them are coming back. Lisbon’s tech scene helps, and so do new tax incentives for qualified workers. These replaced the old non-habitual resident regime, which closed to newcomers in 2024. Boards now want to know how to attract the rest.
Financial Services Talent in Portugal: Reading the Data Behind a Small Leadership Pool
Market: The five largest banks hold around three quarters of banking assets. Meanwhile, the non-performing loan ratio has fallen from about 17% in 2016 to under 3% (Banco de Portugal, Financial Stability Report). In short, the clean-up is done. Boards now want leaders who can grow the business, not just repair it.
Balance sheet: Most Portuguese mortgages carry variable rates linked to Euribor (Banco de Portugal). As a result, interest-rate moves reach households and bank margins quickly. Risk and treasury leaders therefore need experience of both sides of the rate cycle.
Governance: A 2017 law requires listed companies to reserve at least a third of board seats for the less represented gender (CMVM). Consequently, a shortlist without diversity is now a governance risk.
Talent: The leadership pool is small. Portugal has about 10.6 million people and only a handful of large institutions. Moreover, many of the strongest Portuguese bankers work abroad. At the same time, global banks’ hubs in Lisbon and Porto compete for the same technology and operations leaders.
This is the core problem exec search solves in financial services in Portugal. It finds leaders who are not looking and gives them a credible reason to move.
Executive Search for Financial Services Leaders in Portugal: Seven Profiles Boards Cannot Find Fast Enough
Hardest leadership roles to fill in Portuguese financial services
| Role | Main driver | Scarce capability |
|---|---|---|
| CEO / Integration Director | Novo Banco’s move into BPCE and foreign ownership across the sector | Leading a Portuguese bank inside a foreign group’s governance |
| Chief Risk Officer | Variable-rate mortgages and ECB supervision | Interest-rate and credit risk across the full rate cycle, with supervisory credibility |
| Head of Digital Channels and Payments | MB Way and fintech competition | Building digital products on Portugal’s shared payments infrastructure |
| CISO / Head of Operational Resilience | DORA | Translating ICT and third-party risk into board decisions |
| Head of Wealth and Retirement Savings | Low private pension coverage and PPR retirement plans | Moving household savings from deposits into long-term products |
| Head of a Technology or Operations Hub | Global banks’ centres in Lisbon and Porto | Running thousands of staff for a group headquartered abroad |
| Independent director | Fit and proper rules and the gender balance law | Risk, audit and technology expertise at board level |
In our exec search work for digital and operations leaders, clients most often underestimate one capability: experience of scale. Portugal produces excellent bankers. However, few have run large technology teams. The people who have often work in the global hubs rather than in Portuguese banks. That rarely shows up when boards look only at banking CVs.
Getting Executive Search Right in Financial Services in Portugal: What a Small, Open Market Teaches Us
Financial services mandates in Portugal often fail for predictable reasons. In our experience, three patterns stand out.
The memory of past failures is still alive
The collapses of Banco Espírito Santo and Banif left regulators, shareholders and the public alert to governance risk. Under Portuguese banking law, board members must meet standards of integrity, professional qualification, independence and availability (Banco de Portugal, RGICSF). For this reason, we run deep reputational due diligence before any name reaches a shortlist. This includes past board roles and public records.
Breadth beats narrow specialism
In a market this size, a CRO may also own ALM and model risk. Similarly, a CFO may run investor relations and strategy. Specialists from large European groups often expect teams that do not exist here. We therefore assess how many hats a candidate has worn, not just the title.
Returning talent needs a real case
Portuguese executives abroad weigh pay, tax, schooling and career prospects before coming home. In addition, the rules on tax incentives have changed in recent years. That is why we build the return case with the candidate early, so the offer answers their real questions.
Peter Drucker put the stakes plainly: “No other decisions are so long lasting in their consequences or so difficult to unmake” (Harvard Business Review). Similarly, Jim Collins wrote that great companies “first got the right people on the bus” (First Who, Then What). In an institution holding other people’s savings, the wrong seat costs trust as well as revenue.
How We Run the Search
The Civitas Financial Services Leadership Framework runs in five stages:
- An institutional and shareholder diagnostic.
- Market mapping across Portugal, the global hubs and the Portuguese banking community abroad.
- Confidential approaches.
- Structured assessment, including supervisory scenarios.
- In-depth referencing, with reputational checks brought forward.
Most searches take 12 to 16 weeks from brief to signed offer.
A well-run exec search also plans the move itself. Senior contracts can carry notice periods of up to six months. In addition, paid non-compete clauses can run for up to two years. The timing of holiday and Christmas allowances also affects when people resign. As a result, a realistic start date is often four to seven months after the search begins.
Not every exec search firm is equipped for regulated mandates. Zavala Civitas was founded in Madrid in 1971. Since then, our work across Iberia, São Paulo, Toronto and Shanghai has shown that the best hires often come from outside the obvious market. This guide was written by Fernando de Zavala, Partner at Zavala Civitas.
Read more about our financial services executive search practice. Or, if you are planning an exec search in financial services in Portugal, contact our team for a confidential conversation.
About the author Fernando de Zavala
Partner | Zavala Civitas
Fernando de Zavala is a Partner at Zavala Civitas, where he leads executive search and leadership advisory mandates across Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany. He advises industrial and international companies on hiring senior leaders for their operations in Europe.
Your Questions on Executive Search in Financial Services Across Portugal, Answered
What is executive search for financial services in Portugal?
It is a retained, research-led process for hiring senior leaders such as CEOs, CFOs, chief risk officers, CISOs, operations heads and independent board members for banks, insurers, asset and pension managers, payment institutions, fintechs and the Portuguese operations of international groups. It focuses on approaching qualified candidates who are not actively looking for a new role, in Portugal and abroad.
Which leadership roles are hardest to fill in Portuguese financial services?
Chief risk officers with experience of variable-rate mortgage books, digital and payments leaders who have worked at scale, CISOs who can apply DORA, and leaders for retirement savings products are among the scarcest profiles. Banks also compete with global technology and operations hubs in Lisbon and Porto for the same people.
How does Banco de Portugal and ECB supervision affect executive hiring in Portugal?
Board members and key officers must meet fit and proper standards covering integrity, professional qualification, independence and availability, and the ECB assesses appointments at the largest banks. After the failures of BES and Banif, boards also run deeper reputational checks earlier in the process.
How does foreign ownership change leadership hiring in Portugal?
Most large Portuguese banks belong to Spanish or French groups or have major foreign shareholders. Boards look for leaders who can run the local business, work within the parent’s governance and win capital and investment from headquarters abroad.
How long does an executive search take for a financial services role in Portugal?
Most searches take 12 to 16 weeks from brief to signed offer. Notice periods of up to six months for senior roles, paid non-compete clauses and the timing of holiday and Christmas allowances mean the new leader often starts four to seven months after the search begins.
Methodology and Citations
Zavala Civitas combines market mapping across Portugal, the global hubs and the Portuguese banking community abroad with structured assessment. This assessment covers governance track record and leadership at scale. The analysis draws on public data from INE, Banco de Portugal and the CMVM.
- INE, Statistics Portugal. National accounts, value added by industry.
- Banco de Portugal. Financial Stability Report and banking statistics.
- Banco de Portugal. Regime Geral das Instituições de Crédito e Sociedades Financeiras (RGICSF).
- CMVM. Corporate governance and gender balance reporting.
- Drucker, P. (1985). How to Make People Decisions. Harvard Business Review.
- Collins, J. First Who, Then What.
