Piraeus Bank

Banks have entered the market for selling or even renting real estate, disposing of real estate they already own. This disposal is done through websites they have created and on which they upload privately owned properties acquired through auctions, or display properties that are going to be auctioned at the initiative of the bank.

Piraeus Bank, the country's third-largest lender by market value, reported higher quarterly net earnings on Friday on strong net interest income.

The bank, which is 27% owned by the state's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported net earnings of 180 million euros in the first three months of the year, compared with a profit of 170 million euros in the last quarter of 2022.

Leaders in energy businesses underlined on Friday the strong prospects Greece has as an energy leader in the greater region, and provided more insights into what that entailed in terms of requirements, at the Delphi Economic Forum.

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday raised the outlook of credit ratings of Greek banks, citing significant progress achieved by the financial institutions.

Energy and bank stocks led the Greek stock market to its fourth consecutive session of price growth on Monday, albeit on a relatively low turnover. The decision by OPEC+ to reduce oil output pushed global rates higher and favored oil company stocks, including those listed in ATHEX.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market cleared the 1,050-point bar on Friday, but that was not enough to prevent it from ending the month of March with a loss - a first after the rising streak from October to February. While the benchmark recorded a drop of 6.61% for March, it ended the first quarter with an increase of 13.42%.

The position of Greek banks in the face of the international banking crisis remains strong, Goldman Sachs points out, answering questions from its clients about the sector's capital, liquidity and investment portfolio.

The Competition Commission is expected to present a proposal for the case of suspected harmonized practices by banks before the summer. 

This will be followed by a decision by the plenary session of the watchdog before the end of 2023, in the event, of course, that the proposal finds violations of the competition legislation. 

Piraeus Bank, Greece's fourth-largest lender by market value, said on Monday it will cut its nonperforming exposures (NPE) ratio to below 6% of its loan portfolio in 2023.

Under a business plan for 2022-2025, unveiled last year, Piraeus aimed to decrease its NPE ratio to 3% by 2025 and possibly start paying out dividends from 2024 onward.

January ended at the Greek stock market with 10.01% growth for the main index, after it suffered a minor decline on Tuesday in a mixed session. While some fellow eurozone bourses took heavier losses on the day, Athinon Avenue saw its expected profit-taking to be small and targeted, while banks enjoyed another day of price gains.