Bank of Greece

By Evgenia Tzortzi

The government is examining the prospect of transforming ETEAN, the National Fund for Entrepreneurship and Growth, into a new operation that could serve as a development bank and also absorb other financial instruments, with the overall objective of increasing liquidity in the marketplace.

The Bank of Greece's latest code of ethics, aimed at offering solutions to both banks and debtors to deal with nonperforming loans, was approved on Monday by the Credit and Insurance Matters Committee.

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

The Bank of Greece is expected to deliver its latest code of ethics for the sector within the current week, possibly even today, as commercial banks scramble to deal with a mass of nonperforming loans (NPLs).

Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis on Friday briefed MPs from junior coalition partner PASOK on the proposed improvements to a contentious unified property tax, known by its acronym ENFIA, and listened to amendments demanded by skeptical lawmakers.

The changes proposed by the ministry would ease the burden on thousands of taxpayers by 167 million euros, according to sources.

The European Banking Authority will for the first time publish details of banks’ losses from fines and litigation when it releases the results of European Union-wide stress tests later this year.

Besides locals, the crisis that has been gripping Greece for the last six years has also had a major impact on the economic activities of immigrants.

Unprincipled businessmen who remain rich while their businesses have foundered should not expect any benefits from a government plan to tackle the “mountain” of nonperforming business loans, Development Minister Nikos Dendias said on Wednesday.

By Nikos Chrysoloras & Rebecca Christie

Greece’s government will draft a new legal framework by early September for restructuring non-performing loans, Development Minister Nikolaos Dendias said.

Police in Greece on alert after terrorist's capture

Bank of Greece data showed Greek property prices declined at a slower pace in the second quarter of 2014, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Apartment prices fell 7.3 percent from a year earlier. The annual pace of decline, which was 8.5 percent in the first three months of the year, has gradually eased since the third quarter of 2013.