BANKS

The extension gives debtors an additional four months on top of the previous government’s December 31 deadline.

The entry of two giant Chinese banks in Greece is only a recent development and their presence remains discrete. But they have big plans for Greece as the country is part of the new Silk Road, placing the Mediterranean country within the strategic plans prepared by the Asian lenders. As of August 2018, Athens agreed with Beijing to participate in the new Belt and Road initiative even though Cosco had acquired the port of Piraeus much earlier.

Piraeus Bank Group on Friday reported pre-tax profit of 146 million euros in the January-September period, with net profit of 87 million euros in the nine-month period from a loss of 304 million last year.

Eurobank Group on Thursday said its consolidated net profits totaled 149 million euros in the January-September period. Eurobank’s performance in the nine months of 2019 was positive. Net profit at a Group level reached 149 million euros. Net interest income receded by 3.0% to 1,031 million euros, but was up by 1.1% (quarterly) to 346 million.

National Bank Group on Thursday said its net profit from continuing operations rose to 423 million euros in the January-September period from 61 million in the same period last year. Operating profit grew to 465 million euros in the January-September period, from 65 million last year, driven by strong core income, solid trading & other income aided by one-off gains, cost cutting and low CoR despite rigorous cleanup of the NPE book

Completion of the Hercules plan, a proposal being put together by the Greek government to help banks offload nonperforming loans, has been pushed back to 2020, in a development that is also delaying other initiatives by banks to improve their balance sheets. Due to uncertainty stemming from the Hercules proposal, Greek lenders are unable to complete steps they have already announced and prepared 12 months ago, such as the Eurobank - Pimco deal.

In a very well-coordinated operation tens of officials from the Competition Committee raided the head offices of Greece's four systemic banks - Eurobank, Alpha Bank, National Bank and Piraeus Bank - and the Hellenic Bank Association. The Competition Committee did not inform the banks about the reason behind the operation.

Although the Hercules proposal has been by cleared by DG Comp, the ECB's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) has raised a series of objections on it, with the most important one being that it cannot place a zero risk weighting on securitizations backed by a state that does not have an investment credit grade.

Intrum aims for a long-term investment in Greece, Mikael Ericson the company's CEO said on Friday. Speaking to reporters in Athens, Ericson expressed his satisfaction over the quality of the human resources and of the management team of Intrum in Greece and noted that the aim of Intrum Hellas was the offer long-term and sustainable repayment solutions to Piraeus Bank's debtors, while it also aspires to take over the management of third-party portfolios in the future.

Greek bank shares are returning to levels not seen since the sector's third round of recapitalizations took place in 2015, while 2020 looks like it will be the year when big improvements to their balance sheets are seen. Bank shares may be back at the forefront this year, rising 100 percent on an annual basis, but they continue to trade at prices below rights issues completed in 2015 as part of the third recapitalization plan.