New Commissioners Of Greek Systemic Banks

(credit: Wikipedia)

Grant Thornton, Mazar's and KPMG have been appointed as commissioners - independent accountants at the country's largest bank with the task of controlling credit policy decisions and having a say in the restructuring of troubled loans. The European Union has informed the country's four large, systemic, banks that Grant Thornton will take over as commissioner in National Bank and Eurobank - the two banks are in the process of merging -, Mazar's in Alpha Bank and KPMG in Piraeus Bank.

Their first job will be to evaluate the situation of each bank and setting - in cooperation with the banks' managements - the main business targets. The independent accountants will submit quarterly progress reports to the European Union. The four systemic banks have already submitted their business plans, while they are currently working on revised plans. Greek bankers said they were fully prepared to work together with commissioners and looked forward to a fruitful cooperation.

In other banking news, the National Bank of Greece (NBG) said it has not drafted any plan to withdraw from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) -where the bank trades its ADRs on its common and preferred shares. In an announcement to the Athens Stock Exchange -replying to press reports- the bank said, however, it was constantly examining all data and prospects of its share transaction in organized markets and was immediately informing investors over any developments.

And finally, Greece successfully auctioned a 13-week Treasury bill issue raising 1.625 billion euros from the market at a lower cost. The Public Debt Management Organization, in a statement, said that the yield of the issue was set at 4.07 pct, down from 4.11 pct in the previous auction of same T-bills in December 18, 2012. Bids submitted totaled 2.82 billion euros, or 1.75 times more than the asked sum. The organization also accepted non-competitive bids worth 375 million euros. Settlement date was set for Friday, 18 January.

(Combined reports, AMNA)