Banks slash their stock of bad loans

Greek banks achieved a remarkable reduction in their nonperforming exposures in the first nine months of the year, despite the tough conditions of Covid-19, showing their resilience before moves for the substantial streamlining of their financial balances scheduled up to the first half of 2021.

According to January-September data compiled by Kathimerini, the country's four systemic banks achieved a reduction of NPEs by 13.7 billion euros at group level year-on-year, with €12.9 billion of that concerning NPEs in Greece.

The bad exposure at group level dropped from €73.57 billion in end-September 2019 to €60 billion in end-September 2020, a reduction of 18.5%. The same rate was recorded in Greece where bad loans in banks' portfolios shrank from €68.7 billion last year to €55.8 billion in 2020.

The bank with the biggest reduction has been Eurobank, which...