Bank of Greece

 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

Dimitris Pikrodimitris took out a mortgage four years ago when he was drawing an annual income of €27,000 ($36,720).

But the economy quickly sank into a debt crisis, forcing Greeks to tighten their belts and driving the insurance agent’s wages down to just €6,500 last year.

Total credit in Greece shrank 5 percent year-on-year in May, with the pace of decline accelerating from the previous month, Bank of Greece data showed on Thursday.

Credit extended to the government fell 14.9 percent after shrinking by 4.5 percent in April, the central bank said.

As troika envoys held talks with a series of ministers on Friday to assess Greece's progress in enforcing economic reforms, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called a meeting at the Maximos Mansion with his coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos as well as Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis and the latter's predecessor Yannis Stournaras who is now Governor of the Bank of Greece.

House prices in Greece posted the steepest decline in the eurozone during the first quarter of the year, as a comparison of data compiled by the Bank of Greece with figures published on Thursday by Eurostat indicates.
According to the country’s central ba... ...

By Stathis Kousounis

Total travel receipts in Greece posted a 17.3 percent increase in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2013, according to data released by the Bank of Greece.

The total came to 471.4 million euros, while the number of visitors from abroad expanded by 15.4 percent to 1.3 million tourists.