Hellenic Financial Stability Fund

The Finance Ministry (pictured) has given the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund the nod for the creation of a mechanism to guarantee the transfer of a part of banks' bad loans in an effort to contain nonperforming exposures, HFSF chief executive officer Martin Czurda said yesterday.

The government is considering the creation of an asset protection scheme to form part of Athens's overall strategy toward the reduction of nonperforming exposures (NPEs), sources said on Thursday, effectively offering state guarantees for bad-loan clearance.

International market unrest makes it harder for Piraeus Bank's management to raise 500 million euros by year-end in line with the capital strengthening plan submitted to the European Central Bank.

Greek banks Alpha and Eurobank posted weak second-quarter results on Thursday, with Alpha swinging to a loss and Eurobank barely profitable as both focus on shrinking their bad debt load.

The National Bank of Greece's deputy chief executive, Paul Mylonas, has been appointed its new CEO after Leonidas Frangiadakis resigned in May.

The economist has been the acting CEO at National Bank, Greece's largest lender by assets, since his predecessor's resignation, and deputy CEO since June 2014.

Greece's bank rescue fund HFSF said on Tuesday that Andreas Verykios has been appointed as chairman of its general council, succeeding Giorgos Michelis.

Verykios was formerly deputy director general for lending operations at the European Investment Bank until 2008 and head of human resources at the EIB from 2000 to 2005.

Eurobank, Greece's third-largest lender by assets, reported lower net profit in January-to-March compared to the previous quarter as a decline in interest income and commission fees offset reduced provisions for impaired loans.

Piraeus Bank was profitable in January-to-March after booking lower loan-loss provisions, Greece's largest lender by assets said on Thursday.

Piraeus, which is 26.2 percent owned by the country's bank rescue fund HFSF, reported a net profit from continued operations of 18 million euros, excluding one-off items.

National Bank, Greece's second-biggest lender by assets, swung to losses in the second half of the year, while Alpha, Greece's fourth-largest, reported sharply lower profit in April-to-June after taking a loss on the sale of its Serbian subsidiary, despite lower provisions for impaired loans.

Piraeus Bank turned profitable in April-to-June, while Eurobank saw profits rise. Piraeus posted small net earnings from continued operations as provisions for impaired loans were flat compared to the previous quarter, Greece's largest lender by assets said Wednesday.