National Bank of Greece

National Bank of Greece announced on Thursday it has proceeded to the repayment of contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) amounting to 2.03 billion euros which it issued in December 2015 and were held by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF).

[Reuters]

The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund and National Bank of Greece on Thursday announced they had reached an agreement to end their dispute over the appointment of the lender's new president.

Belgian bank KBC and Hungarian lender OTP Bank have made offers to acquire United Bulgarian Bank (UBB), the Bulgarian subsidiary of National Bank of Greece (NBG), according to banking industry sources.

National Bank of Greece aims to have the binding bids for the sale of its subsidiary Ethniki Insurance within the first quarter of 2017. According to the group's commitment in its restructuring plan, the sale must take place in the first half of next year, but bank sources say the process will begin in January.

National Bank (NBG) has hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as advisers on the sale of a stake in its insurance subsidiary Ethniki Insurance, banking sources close to the procedure said on Thursday.

Founded in 1891, Ethniki Insurance is the oldest insurer in Greece and is fully owned by NBG.

National Bank of Greece announced on Monday that, following the conclusion of the sale of Turkish subsidiary Finansbank, it has addressed a letter to the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) of the European Central Bank requesting approval to repurchase the contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) amounting to about 2.03 billion euros issued in December 2015 and held by the Hellenic Financial Stabili

National Bank of Greece (NBG) turned profitable in the third quarter, helped by improving core income and lower bad debt provisions.

National Bank of Greece chief executive Leonidas Fragkiadakis has stressed to Kathimerini his determination to find a solution to the lender's management crisis, adding that the point is to reach consensus for the benefit of the bank. He adds that the lender has many challenges ahead of it and that it is crucial normality returns for work to resume.

The government on Friday lent its full support to bank bailout fund HFSF in its clash with the National Bank of Greece board, increasing pressure on NBG chief executive Leonidas Fragkiadakis to resign.

Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said "a bank cannot ignore the wish of its main shareholder."

There seems to be no end to the administration crisis at National Bank of Greece, as immediately after Panayiotis Thomopoulos was elected the group's new president on Wednesday, the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, NBG's main stakeholder, stated it had voted against him and is examining the option of calling an extraordinary general meeting.