Non-performing loan

The stockpile of bad bank loans in the European Union has halved over the past four years but remains hefty at lenders in Greece and Cyprus, the bloc's banking watchdog said on Friday.

Alpha Bank is awaiting binding offers from three short-listed investors for the concession of its nonperforming corporate loan portfolio dubbed "Neptune," testing investor interest in the largest portfolio of secured corporate loans put up for sale by a Greek lender to date.

The government is seeking out additional systemic solutions for the banks' bad-loan problem, beyond the state's Hercules plan, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras revealed to Bloomberg on Thursday. His comments came after Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras said that Hercules is a step in the right direction but is not enough.

Plans to cut bad loans at Greek banks by up to 30 billion euros ($33 billion) gained approval on Thursday from the European Union, which said they did not violate state aid rules.
Bankers told Reuters last month that they expected a green light from the European Commision for the scheme, that will help Greek banks offload the non-performing loans weighing on them.

Alpha Bank is working on a plan for the securitization of its nonperforming loans and their management by an independent company to which the lender's competent staff will be transferred.

With significant experience in the management of nonperforming loans (NPLs) and real estate owned properties (REOs), and more than 20 billion euros of managed assets, HipoGes Iberia, a KKR group company, enters the Greek market under the dual capacity of NPL manager and real estate services provider.

The government is moving quickly to develop plans to reduce the retail banks' nonperforming loans, hoping it will make up for the wasted time under the SYRIZA government.

The greatest challenge facing Greek banks is to reduce their very high level of nonperforming loans, says credit rating agency Moody's.

Greek analysts are concerned by foreign funds increasingly going short on Greek banks over the last month.
The trend became apparent in July and is based on debt rating firms' repeated warnings that the banking sector, with its nonperforming loans, remains one of the main drags on the economy.

National Bank is transferring its first portfolio of loans secured against property, named "Symbol," to a consortium comprising Centerbridge Partners and Elliott Advisors for 250 million euros.