The Bank of Greece

The new framework for the protection of borrowers' primary residences won't have a negative impact on banks, according to the impact assessment the Bank of Greece has conducted and sent to Greece's creditors.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras today told Athens lower court prosecutor Haralambos Mastrantonakis that he is convinced that Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis surreptiously recorded their conversation when Polakis called him following reports that the Bank of Greece was probing a 100,000 euro loan that the minister was given by Attica Bank.

Testifying before a prosecutor Tuesday, Bank of Greece Governor Yiannis Stournaras is said to have accused Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis of illegally recording a telephone conversation between them.

Stournaras allegedly claimed that Polakis told him, during the conversation on his cell phone, that he was recording the call but had not requested his consent to do so.

Yesterday's meeting between Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras just two days before the European Commission's report on the Greek economy reveals the government's concern over the problems that lie ahead, the most important of which is the looming problem of  non-performing loans (NPLs) that has burdened the banks and the economy in general.

The number of tourists who visited Greece in 2018 rose to 30.1 million, with incoming tourist traffic recording an increase of 10.8 percent compared with 2017, data released by the Bank of Greece (BoG) on Thursday show.

Tourism revenues increased by 10.1 percent compared with 2017 and stood at 16.1 billion euros.

The head of the Athens Lower Court Prosecutor's Office, Vangelis Ioannidis, today ordered an investigation regarding the publication by a media outlet of a telephone conversation between Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis and Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras has lashed out at Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis, who handed over to the government-friendly newspaper Documento a transcript of a conversation he had with the country's central banker regarding a probe of a 100,000 euro loan he was issued by Attica Bank.

Greek banks remain cautious about the two alternative proposals for the securitization of nonperforming loans (NPLs) presented to them by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) and the Bank of Greece. They expect to see details and want to know whether one or both of them obtain European Commission clearance, local bankers told a forum in Athens on Friday.

One of the biggest surveying service suppliers and nonperforming loan management companies, Italian group Cerved, is entering the Greek market after obtaining the necessary licenses for managing NPLs from the Bank of Greece and acquiring Eurobank's subsidiary, Eurobank Property Services (EPS).

Fitch Ratings has reservations about the Bank of Greece's plan aimed at the reduction of local banks' bad loans, owing to a number of unknown factors that it has discerned.