Bank of Greece

By Kiel Porter, Marcus Bensasson and Aaron Kirchfeld

The private-equity units of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG are nearing an agreement to purchase the buyout arm of National Bank of Greece SA, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

 While sentiment constantly improves, local enterprises say they face obstacles to becoming more extrovert

Competitiveness in small and medium-sized enterprises needs to become stronger, the National Bank of Greece argued in its biannual report on SMEs on Monday, though it also confirmed the steady improvement of business sentiment in the country.

 Lenders are wary of the upcoming ECB stress tests and institutional handling of nonperforming loans

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

The improvement in the liquidity conditions at Greek banks, through share capital increases, bond issues and growing deposits, has had no impact on the real economy as it has not been translated into new loan issues.

Former Bank of Greece Governor Giorgos Provopoulos (photo) has been called by a prosecutor probing the sale of Proton Bank to Lavrentis Lavrentiadis to answer questions relating to the decision to approve the businessman’s takeover of the lender.

The European Commission has approved National Bank of Greece's (NBG) restructuring plan, which includes reducing NBG's stake in Turkey's Finansbank .

NBG was one of Greece's big four banks that were rescued with state aid during the country's debt crisis. The Commission then reviewed NBG's business plan to see if it was in line with EU state aid rules.

 Lenders have created their own units to deal with nonperforming loans and their merging would be difficult

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

Sources from the Bank of Greece have categorically ruled out the creation of a single “bad” bank that would gather all the commercial lenders’ nonperforming loans (NPLs), which add up to some 35 percent of the total, under one roof.

Two thirds of Greek businesses are unable to service their loans, according to the Bank of Greece.

European Central Bank funding to Greek banks fell in June by 5.71 billion euros, Bank of Greece data showed on Tuesday.

The funding dropped to 44.95 billion euros from 50.66 billion euros in May.

[Reuters]

Greece’s anti-corruption chief hopes to see an electronic system for checking the assets of politicians and public officials put into use before year-end, sources said Tuesday.

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis