United States housing bubble

Greece is planning to submit a bill to parliament on Friday to protect borrowers from home foreclosures, a government official said on Wednesday, though it is yet to secure the agreement of its lenders on its terms.

Representative of Greece's four systemic banks - Alpha, Eurobank, Piraeus, and National Bank of Greece - are holding their second meeting in a week this evening with the government's economic team at the PM's office.

The focus of the meeting will be a new law establishing the framework for the protection of debtors' primary homes from foreclosure.

Greek banks remain cautious about the two alternative proposals for the securitization of nonperforming loans (NPLs) presented to them by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) and the Bank of Greece. They expect to see details and want to know whether one or both of them obtain European Commission clearance, local bankers told a forum in Athens on Friday.

Eurobank will be the first bank to securitize its mortgage loans, putting up for grabs a security based on a portfolio worth 2 billion euros. According to a teaser sent to candidate investors, the portfolio will contains around 44,000 loans, all of which have long been classified as nonperforming.

The management of Piraeus Bank is examining the use of a model previously employed by Attica Bank for its capital boost through the securitization of its bad loans. The objective is to draw 500 million euros that will count as Tier II capital, fulfilling the commitment made by the lender to the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Bank of Cyprus's Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to BB+ from BB. The rating is just one step before investment grade.

This update comes following the announcement that the bank is in the process of securitising a portfolio of €2.8 billion of gross loans, including €2.7 billion of non-performing loans (NPLs), equivalent to about a third of the bank's total NPLs.

The ministries of economy and justice agreed on Thursday to freeze foreclosures of properties in the region of Attica for debts towards the banks for two to three months, following the deadly fires in the area that have claimed at least 81 victims and injured scores.

It remains hard for the private sector to get new credit, and particularly households.

Although the Greek economy registered an improved growth rate in the first quarter of the year (2.3 percent on an annual basis), and despite the strengthening of confidence and the general improvement of conditions in the country, loan issues remain pegged to crisis period levels.

The notary whose office in central Athens was raided by anarchist group Rouvikonas on Friday said she will not be "terrorized," rejecting the group's accusation that she handled electronic foreclosures for main residencies.

Members of Rouvikonas smashed windows and equipment in the notary's office, and scattered flyers on their way out of the building.

Banks are preparing to make joint proposals for the settlement of bad mortgages (with write-offs of up to 50 percent) and bad consumer loans (up to 90 percent) to almost 157,000 debtors who have filed for protection under the provisions of the so-called Katseli Law.