ATHENS--Greece's four big, systemic banks will need another 6.4
billion euros ($8.9 billion) to shore up their still-fragile
balance sheets, the country's central bank said Thursday, in order
to cope with an ever-growing mountain of bad loans that have become
yet another painful legacy in Greece's protracted debt crisis.
In a statement, the Bank of Greece said the four banks--
National Bank of Greece SA, Piraeus Bank SA, Alpha Bank AE and
Eurobank Ergasias SA--would need to present plans by mid-April how
they would raise that capital; such as by selling down assets,
going to the capital markets or else by appealing for further state
aid.
Eurobank, already under state control, faces the biggest
shortfall--it needs another EUR2.9 billion in capital--followed by
market leader National Bank of Greece, which must raise some EUR2.2
billion, the central bank said. Piraeus and Alpha Bank followed,
with the former facing a EUR425 million shortfall, and the latter
needing EUR262 million.
After a deep, six-year recession, a pricked property bubble,
flight among depositors, and an unprecedented EUR200 billion
sovereign-debt restructuring, Greece's banks are in a world of
hurt. This year, they were recapitalized with the help of a
European Union loan, but together they still hold some EUR70
billion in bad loans--a sum equal to a third of Greece's gross
domestic product.
Write to Alkman Granitsas at alkman.granitsas@wsj.com and
Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com
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