National Bank of Greece

The National Bank of Greece board meeting interrupted last week upon the demand of major shareholder the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund due to a clash over the election of a new president is scheduled to resume on Wednesday.

National Bank of Greece, the country's oldest, remains without a president, an issue that will be revisited in the coming days. At the same time, its main shareholder, bank bailout fund HFSF, is also effectively headless.

Panayiotis Thomopoulos, former deputy governor of the Bank of Greece and former chairman of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, was elected chairman of the National Bank of Greece by the lender's board on Thursday.

Thomopoulos is replacing chairwoman Louka Katseli.

National Bank of Greece signed an agreement with the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Fund on Monday for the supply of 300 million euros aimed at supporting Greek enterprises, based on the participation of the EIB, the EBRD andthe EIF in a securitization transaction executed by NBG two months ago.

Spain's BBVA, which has a majority stake in Turkey's Garanti Bank, is looking to buy another bank in the country, BBVA chief Carlos Torres Vila has said. 

BBVA is not actively in talks as there are no banks for sale, but Turkey is a strategic market, he said. "We want to grow in Turkey. We want to acquire another lender that will bring value to Garanti."

Bank of China has completed its application to receive a banking license in Turkey after submitting the required documents, according to the head of the country's banking watchdog. 

Two lenders from Iran are planning to take license to do business in the Turkish market, said the head of Turkey's banking watchdog. 

"We have taken demands from Iranian banks. Two Iranian lenders want to take banking license in Turkey," said the head of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), Mehmet Ali Akben, on March 16. 

Qatar is in talks to buy stakes in a number of Turkish banks and hopes to conduct significant investments in Turkey's agricultural sector, Qatar's envoy to Turkey has said, according to business daily Dünya.

Qatari Ambassador to Turkey Salem Mubarak Shafi al-Shafi said the talks with a number of Turkish banks had been ongoing to acquire stakes. 

Turkey suffered a drop in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) last year of around $7 billion from the year before, as foreign investors start to be spooked by the country's exposure to unrest from neighboring Syria, according to a new report by Ernst & Young (EY). 

The drop comes at a time when the global M&A volume hit record high levels of $5.6 trillion, according to EY. 

Bulgaria's Bulstrad, part of Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), has completed the acquisition of the country's bancassurer UBB-AIG, VIG said on Tuesday.

Simultaneously with the acquisition, a cooperation agreement with United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) has been signed, VIG said in a statement.