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Greece will start selling stakes in its four largest banks this fall, sector officials and bankers said on Monday, marking the latest milestone in the country's recovery from the financial meltdown it suffered starting in 2009.

Wednesday's session at the Greek stock market bore a great resemblance to Tuesday's, only with significantly greater gains upon closing after the late rally that banks staged in the closing auctions. Once again the benchmark closed higher and the majority of stocks suffered losses, given also the drop recorded by mid-caps. The 1,100-point mark is now within reach for the main index.

Greece's Eurobank is struggling to finalize a deal to sell a majority stake in its loan-recovery business to US money manager PIMCO, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, after a Sept. 30 deadline passed with no agreement.

Greece's third-largest lender, Eurobank, said on Friday that its Bulgarian subsidiary Postbank had concluded the acquisition of Piraeus Bank's Bulgarian unit after obtaining regulatory approvals.
The acquisition boosts Postbank's share in Bulgaria's banking market to more than 10 percent, ranking it third in terms of total loans, Eurobank said.

An anti-establishment group calling themselves Anarchists have claimed responsibility for an attack on a pre-election campaign event organized by the conservative New Democracy party in Athens on May 15.

Greece's Eurobank is looking to increase its market share in Serbia and would consider an acquisition if an opportunity arises, its chief executive told Reuters on the sidelines of a business forum.

Eurobank, the only Greek bank operating in Serbia, is the EU candidate country's seventh-largest bank with a 4.5 percent share of the market.

By the end of the year Eurobank will have completed the sale of Postbank, its subsidiary in Romania, that will mark the end of the program for the restructuring of the group's activities abroad.

Eurobank intends to retain a strong presence in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Serbia and Luxembourg, with Cyprus and Bulgaria being at the forefront of its international operations.

Piraeus Bank, Greece's largest bank by assets, aims to sell its Balkan businesses and certain other holdings and shrink its bad loans portfolio, its new chief executive told reporters on Wednesday, outlining the group's plans up to 2020.

"Our vision is to be the most credible bank in Greece," said CEO Christos Megalou, who took over in April.

Greece's central bank has granted a license to Pillarstone, the platform set up by private equity firm KKR, to provide long-term capital to large Greek corporate borrowers and manage non-performing exposures for Greek banks, Eurobank said on Thursday.

Bulgaria's Postbank, a subsidiary of the Greek Eurobank, successfully finalized on Tuesday the agreement on the acquisition of the operations of the Bulgarian branch of the Greek Alpha Bank.

With the acquisition, Postbank, legally known as Eurobank Bulgaria, has become the fourth largest bank in Bulgaria in terms of loans and deposits, with assets exceeding BGN 6.3 B.