52 years ago, after April 25, 1974, the laws that nationalized the main banks in Portugal were published. These first nationalizations removed private investors from what were known as the "money factories".
The approved law nationalized the Bank of Portugal, the Overseas Bank (Banco Nacional Ultramarino) and the Bank of Angola. With these measures, the shareholders of these financial institutions were removed, including many small investors who had invested their savings in these banks.
The post-revolutionary period thus brought a profound transformation to the Portuguese financial sector, with the State assuming direct control of the main banking institutions in the country. This decision represented one of the greatest changes in the Portuguese economic structure in the following decades.
