NBG

National Bank, Greece's second-largest lender by market value, on Tuesday reported higher net earnings in the first nine months of 2023 compared with the same period a year ago as net interest income rose.

NBG, 40% owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, said net earnings reached 791 million euros from €680 million in the first nine months of 2022.

The disinvestment program of the state from its holdings in banks will be fully implemented from this fall, starting with Eurobank and the allocation of its 1.4% stake.

Up next will be National Bank, in which the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) has the largest stake, amounting to 40.39%.

The latest update of the NBG's high frequency forecast of Greek GDP shows that Q2 GDP growth was very strong and more broad-based than the previous estimate.

GDP is now projected to have increased by c. 13.0% y-o-y (0.7% q-o-q, s.a.) in Q2:2021 - compared with previous estimates of 10.1% y-o-y in late-May.

MSCI has upgraded two systemic lenders, Eurobank and National Bank, to the main index for Greece, from which they had been demoted last November after the decline in their capitalization in 2018.

Banks recorded robust gains on Monday, leading the benchmark at the Athens stock market higher in the first session of the week.

Stocks of Piraeus Bank, PPC, Jumbo and the National Bank overperformed, though turnover remained thin.

National Bank CEO Leonidas Fragkiadakis stated on the sidelines of an event organized by the lender on Monday that all of the country's four systemic banks will get a passing mark in the European Central Bank stress tests.

The Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis warned that the salvage of Greek banks could be delayed. In an interview to financial site ‘Bloomberg’ Dombrovskis underlined the urgency of implementing the rescue plan for Greece and its banking system, stressing that the review of the 4 major Greek banks was linked to the country’s bailout plan.

Louka Katseli, Chair of the Greek Banking Association, told private SKAI TV that if there is no solution to Greece receiving Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) from the European Central Bank, then Greek banks would have a problem by Monday.

Greece's largest bank National Bank (NBG) will issue a 5-year, fixed-rate bond to raise up to 750 million euros ($1.04 billion) and boost its liquidity, the bank said in a stock market filing on Thursday.