Piraeus Bank

Greece-based Piraeus Bank is negotiating with the National Bank of Greece (NBG) group over a potential merger into United Bulgarian Bank, owned by NBG, media reports suggest.

None of the two Greek lenders has yet commented on the reports of the Greek-language news website Euro2Day, which is quoted by the Bulgarian mass circulation daily 24 Chasa ("24 Hours").

Macedonia's central bank has told the commercial banks to pull their money out of banks in Greece as a "preventive measure", after Greece's international creditors refused to extend bailouts to Athens.

As a result, Greece has closed its banks to prevent a mass withdrawal of savings.

Standard & Poor’s rating agency cut Greece’s credit grade by one notch further into junk status amid the country’s deteriorating financial situation. The agency says it now sees a 50-percent chance of Greece leaving the eurozone.

Greek-owned banks in the Balkans region were open on Monday, paying out cash and issuing loans -- in contrast to Greece, where a bank holiday and capital controls went into force, Reuters reported.

Bulgaria is among the countries with highest fiscal risk in the light of a possible Grexit scenario according to a Bloomberg report.

The decision by Athens to shut down banks in the country this week has no legal force outside Greece and cannot be applied to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has said.

In spite of the initial negative reaction to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras?s strong words about the creditors, the losses of the Greek stock market benchmark were contained to less than 2 percent on Wednesday in a sign that optimism and relief remained at the back of investors? minds.

By Yalman Onaran

Greek banks, which received two capital infusions in the past two years, may need a third one as a recession drives up losses from bad loans.

By Lorcan Roche Kelly & Marcus Bensasson

While the government has shown resourcefulness to last as long as it has without defaulting, Tsipras's actions have taken a visible toll on Greece's economy, banking system and markets. An immediate gauge of the cost comes in plunging market capitalization of the Athens Stock Exchange.

By Marco Bertacche & Christos Ziotis

Greek banks, forced into a central bank liquidity lifeline, are poised to report sustained losses as they grapple with record deposit outflows and an economy that plunged into double-dip recession.