Nikos Karamouzis

Greetings! Since the government isn’t producing much news for this column, except for Olgara, who popped up in court again yesterday with her signature black shades, “clarifying that she doesn’t make statements for the sake of her children”—who, if I’m not mistaken, are still babies, but anyway—I’ll move on to the PASOK-SYRIZA scene where things are more fun.

Investment funds are increasingly putting their money into small and medium-sized firms.

New players are entering the juice and soft drinks market by acquiring existing companies, although, for the moment, none is challenging the dominance of Coca-Cola HBC.

The French-Greek Chamber of Commerce and Industry is holding an event on Thursday at the French Institute of Greece (31 Sina, Athens) titled "Proposals for a Fair and Effective Tax Policy for Enterprises."
The keynote speaker will be the new head of Grant Thornton in Greece, Nikos Karamouzis, while corporate tax experts will offer their insight.

The boardof Greece's bank association has elected George Handjinicolaou as its new chairman to take over from Nikos Karamouzis, whose three-year term concludes at the end of March.
Handjinicolaou is currently the chairman of Piraeus Bank, Greece's largest lender.

The government and the country's systemic banks agreed on Friday to extend a legislation protecting primary residencies from auctions by two months, following a meeting of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) at Maximos Mansion.

Just 26 percent of banking transactions in Greece are carried out at bank branches today, against a backdrop of growing confidence in the local credit sector, which itself is experiencing increasing strength and progress, delegates at the Delphi Economic Forum's session on banking said on Thursday.

The parameters of the adverse scenario stress tests scheduled in February on Greece's banks, with an emphasis on property values, will be at the focus of talks between the Hellenic Bank Association, led by Nikos Karamouzis, and the head of the European Central Bank's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), Daniele Nouy, on January 15.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, is to meet on Thursday afternoon with the head of the Hellenic Bank Association, Nikos Karamouzis, and executives of Greek banks in London.

The aim of the meeting is to convince the Fund of the stability of Greek banks, according to sources.

The President of the Hellenic Bank Association, Nikos Karamouzis expressed his grave concerns about the dangers for the country’s systemic banks in relation to the non-performing loans. The Greek banker went on question the effectiveness of the legislation submitted by the Greek government regarding the issue of out of court settlements for arrears.