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Top Greek Banks Post $37 Billion in Losses on Debt Restructuring
Money News – Greece’s four biggest banks reported a combined loss of 27.9 billion euros ($36.9 billion) for last year after participating in the country’s debt exchange, the largest sovereign restructuring in history. The four, including National Bank of Greece, EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA, Alpha Bank SA and Piraeus Bank SA, said they wrote down about 25 billion euros in the combined value of their Greek government bond holdings. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is trying to finalize a plan to recapitalize Greek banks, which wrote down more than half the face value of their government bonds and posted an increase in bad loan ratios after five years of recession. Greece’s bank- recapitalization body yesterday got 25 billion euros in a first tranche of funds, or half the total assigned for the purpose, as part of a second bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Read Article
Tags: 2nd Great Depression, banks, debt wealth, Europe, financial system