Piraeus

By George Georgiopoulos

Greece's fourth-biggest lender Alpha Bank said on Monday that about 21 percent of its 10,000 employees took up a voluntary redundancy offer the bank launched last month as part of moves to cut costs.

Alpha had aimed to cut about 15 to 20 percent of its workforce to squeeze its cost base under a restructuring plan approved by the EU Commission.

The overall uncertainty regarding how Greek banks will emerge from October’s stress tests to be conducted on all EU banks has fueled a summer of distress and fluctuation for local banking stocks.

 Sector's denial of any capital injection needs receives backing from positive report delivered by JPMorgan

Greek banking sources are denying reports that the sector will need a new round of increased capital support, announcing that no such news has been delivered to them by the European Central Bank.

Investor anxiety regarding the outlook for Greek banks combined with heightened insecurity on foreign markets on Wednesday to drive Greek stocks sharply lower for an eighth straight session. This was in tandem with bourses abroad, hit by speculation about a further deterioration in trade relations with Russia and news that Italy is back in recession.

The Greek bourse reverted to a downward course on Tuesday, with the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ending at 1,195.96 points after shedding 1.43 percent from Monday’s 1,213.31 points. The large-cap FTSE/ATHEX 25 index contracted 1.56 percent to close at 384.20 points.

 ECB says stress test results will be announced in October

By Evgenia Tzortzi

By Evgenia Tzortzi

The newly formed Institution for Growth in Greece (IfG) development fund is next week set to sign contracts up to the amount of 200 million euros with three of the country’s four systemic lenders to begin refinancing loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Sources say that these banks are National, Eurobank and Piraeus.

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

The post-crisis picture shows that the domestic credit sector has undergone big changes, with almost 12,000 jobs gone and about 1,000 fewer bank branches, while 13 banks have disappeared from the banking map in what has been an unprecedented restructuring as a result of the need to adjust to the new reality that brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy.

Alpha and Piraeus banks announced on Monday the start of their book-building with an aim to increase their share capital and cover their additional requirements as determined by the Bank of Greece a few weeks ago. The definitive decisions will be made at the extraordinary general meetings of the two lenders on March 28.