Ok and do we know what the reason is ?
That's a very good question, but the Receiver has never told us anything other than "he can't get the money out of Novo bank."
It would be nice if he told us why Novo bank is not releasing the funds, and more importantly, what is he doing about it, has he hired a lawyer in Portugal to try to speed up the process? Only the Reveiver can answer these questions.
If I had to guess, I'm pretty sure Novo bank didn't keep the funds in
cash, more than likely they bought long-dated treasuries to make some money, but long-term treasuries have lost a lot of their value during the last few years, so if they sell those treasuries they will lose a lot of money.
During the last few years a number of banks have faced the same problem, some of them have been bailed out, as it was the case with Silicon Valley bank.
I'm not saying that Novo is in need of a bail out, the bank is making money, but they are probably holding onto those long-term treasuries for as long as they can, so they don't end up losing money.
Only the Reveiver knows exactly what's going on, but I do wonder if he is doing anything about it, or if he is just waiting hoping that at some point Novo bank will release the funds.
I have no doubt that Novo bank is going to hold on to the funds for as long as they can.