Greek stocks headed south on Thursday, after three sessions with total gains of 1.88%.

Banks want to begin auctioning off foreclosed property again, beginning in October.

 

Piraeus Bank has applied to the Hercules asset protection scheme that aims to reduce banks’ exposure to nonperforming loans through their securitization.

Private investment funds will undertake the new entity for the acquisition and re-leasing of properties.

National Bank (NBG), one of Greece’s four largest lenders, on Thursday reported a big drop in second-quarter net profit compared with the first quarter on the back of lower trading, fee and commission income.

Estia plan, a special government scheme drawn up by Cyprus' Ministry of Finance and approved by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition, did not meet the expectations that it would help considerably reduce nonperforming loans.

Alpha Bank became the second of Greece's “big four” retail banks to apply to the Hercules asset protection scheme that aims to reduce banks’ exposure to nonperforming loans through their securitization. 

Piraeus Bank, one of Greece’s four largest lenders, on Tuesday reported a profit in the second quarter on the back of lower loan impairment provisions.

The number of transactions that can be carried out at Greek banks have been limited as of Tuesday amid concerns of a nationwide rise in new coronavirus infections.

Analysts expect the second quarter to be profitable for Piraeus Bank, which is announcing results on Tuesday. 

Debt rating agencies have a positive view of the creation of a “bad bank” to handle nonperforming loans (NPLs) dragging down commercial banks’ profits and ratings.

Consensus has been growing among analysts and economists about the need for the creation of a bank to take on the nonperforming loans of Greek lenders (a “bad bank”).

Alpha Bank has been distinguished as the Best Issuing Bank in Southern Europe for 2019 by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group.

The swing of Greek households to bank savings, partly due to the coronavirus pandemic, is giving local banks some much-needed breathing room, Moody’s said on Monday.

Greece’s central bank is looking at the creation of a “bad bank” to deal with sour loans weighing down its banking sector, and which are likely to rise from the Covid-19 fallout, it said on Thursday.

The new bankruptcy code that the government is preparing will provide for the settlement of debts to the state in up to 240 monthly tranches, up from 120 today, as part of the extrajudicial debt arrangement framework for enterprises.

Six investment funds participated in the first stage of non-binding bids for Alpha Bank’s bad-loan management spinoff Cepal and the securitization of the Galaxy portfolio.

The burning issue of the new bankruptcy code has been forwarded to the meetings that the administration of the Finance Ministry will have on Monday with the mission chiefs of the country’s creditors.

Loan repayment installments by households and enterprises hurt by the crisis have now been frozen up to the end of the year, following a decision by the Hellenic Bank Association on Tuesday.

The government is about to perform a close inspection of all applications for protection of debtors under the provisions of the so-called Katseli law, to find out how many of them deserve protection status and which of them have only applied in order to win time.