National Bank of Greece

Greek banks received what amounts to a virtually clean bill of health from the European Central Bank, as the results of the stress tests Frankfurt performed on the four systemic lenders of this country showed on Sunday that Alpha and Piraeus have completed the exercise successfully through their dynamic picture, and only Eurobank and National need to cover the negligible amount of 291 million e

Greece's biggest lender by assets National Bank said on Wednesday its Turkish unit Finansbank has submitted a plan to capital market authorities to raise up to 715 million Turkish lira (318.91 million US dollar) via an issue of new shares.
NBG aims to red... ...

Greece’s Capital Market Commission on Tuesday announced its approval of Alpha Bank’s absorption of Citibank’s branch network and portfolio in Greece and the entire share capital of Diners Club of Greece Finance Company SA.

The Commission decided the absorption poses no threat to the operation of the market and its competition requirements.

By Dinesh Nair, Ercan Ersoy & Ruth David

National Bank of Greece SA has hired banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to sell as much as 40 percent of Turkish unit Finansbank AS in a secondary share offering, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

The European Commission’s restructuring plans for Greek banks provide for a drastic scaling back of their activities abroad as well as reductions in the number of branches and staff at home.

The plans for banks National (NBG) and Piraeus were given the green light late last month, following those for Alpha in early July and Eurobank in April.

 NBG looks set to boost its assets by 400 mln euros and its capital adequacy ratio by 70 basis points

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

National Bank of Greece is proceeding with the absorption of its corporate management subsidiary Ethniki Kefalaiou, as Kathimerini understands that the decision has already been approved at all corporate levels and will be immediately enforced.

National Bank of Greece is reviewing second-round bids for its London-headquartered private equity business and hopes to sell it «imminently», the bank's deputy chief executive Petros Christodoulou told Reuters.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded the state-guaranteed long-term senior debt rating of National Bank of Greece (NBG, B-/Stable), Alpha Bank (Alpha, B-/Stable) and Eurobank Ergasias (Eurobank, B-/Stable) to 'B' from 'B-'.

The rating actions follow the upgrade of Greece's sovereign Long-Term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR). [Reuters]

Alpha Bank is set to offer the lowest new issue yield from a Greek bank since the country's institutions returned to the capital markets on Thursday, helping further cement the recovery story of one of the eurozone's most troubled jurisdictions.

The Caa1/CCC/B- rated bank is marketing the three-year bond at 3.75 percent area via Citigroup, HSBC, JP Morgan and Mediobanca.

Fitch Ratings said in a new report on Tuesday that second-tier foreign-owned Turkish banks are well positioned to face the challenges inherent in Turkey’s volatile operating environment.

Finansbank, owned by National Bank of Greece (NBG), enjoys the highest net interest margin among the country’s four foreign-owned lenders, reflecting a business mix more focused on retail banking.