BANKS

Based on the Forbes billionaire list, Mystakidis had $1.1 billion in assets in April 2020, down from $2.1 billion a year earlier as the capitalization of Glencore had fallen sigificantly - a company in which he holds more than 3 percent, despite the fact that since the end of 2018 he has withdrawn from management duties.

Analysts say that selling pressure prompted over concerns for the pandemic and the subsequent restructuring of MSCI's indicators have been absorbed by domestic retail investors and many foreign portfolios, with a limited investment horizon, who rushed to take advantage of the low prices.

Bank officials point out to Business Daily that market conditions have changed dramatically in the last few months. In recent weeks, optimism has returned, and the restarting of the economy, the so-called reopening optimism, has led to a rapid return to normalcy with investors focusing on upcoming improvements in bank figures rather than the severe problems caused by the pandemic.

According to sources, three special purpose vehicles (SPV) were set up in Ireland a few days ago, to which different categories of non-performing loans were transferred, as part of the Galaxy plan. At the same time, the bank has taken the necessary steps to obtain the assessment needed to make use of the state guarantees under the Hercules bad debt plan.

Sources indicate that the extreme scenario of stress tests predicts zero revenue for a hotel business for this year, while for 2021 the projected revenue is adjusted to 65 percent of income recorded in 2019. For 2022, the projected revenue is considered to amount to 85 percent. 

In the next few days, EPATH (the BoG's Committee on Credit and Insurance Issues) will consider the plan to create a special scheme for the management of non-performing loans. This will be followed by an in-depth examination of the plan's technical aspects with BoG consultants, followed by presentations and discussions with investors and market players to test its operational aspects and the response of markets.

According to the Bank of Greece data, the net flow of business financing amounted to 1.86 billion euros in March, compared with a positive net flow of 462 million euros in February, with the annual rate of change increasing to 3.6 percent from 1.4 percent. Businesses in a healthy financial position and with a good credit profile rushed to boost their liquidity, by drawing liquidity from lenders. Additionally, banks have extended loan limits to healthy businesses to shield them from the effects of the crisis.

The bank's technocrats examined in detail all the alternatives for tackling the problem (maintaining the current strategy of loan securitizations, capital increases, bad bank, etc.) and concluded that creating a single bad bank achieves maximum efficiency, as it also achieves the largest reduction in non-performing loans per unit of capital.

Participating in the online discussion organized by Tsomokos Digital was George Georgakopoulos, Intrum Hellas managing director, Theodoros Kalantonis, chairman of FPS, Fotis Kourmousis, Special Secretary for Private Debt Management, Panos Paleologos, founder and president of Hotel Brain and Giannis Chatzitheodosiou, head of the Athens chamber of tradesmen.

During the emergency working conditions, banks managed in a very short time to transfer a large part of their operations online as more than a quarter of the administrative staff worked from home. According to sources, more than 10,000 laptops were handed out to employees from the four systemic banks.