NEWS

Greek bankers to explain loans to political parties

Up to 50 bankers are to given written evidence to a financial affairs prosecutor today in connection with an investigation into political party funding.

The probe seeks to discover whether any laws were broken in the way that parties, particularly New Democracy and PASOK, received loans from banks with only their future state funding as collateral.

The banks that are being asked to explain their lending decisions are ATEbank, Piraeus, Eurobank, Marfin and Attica Bank.

Parties have received some 550 million euros during the past decade from public coffers. Despite the worsening economic situation they claimed 54 million euros last year, compared to 48 million in 2010.

PASOK and New Democracy owe a combined total of some 250 million euros, despite having benefited most from state funding.

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