YIANNIS PAPADOYIANNIS

It remains hard for the private sector to get new credit, and particularly households.

Greek banks are preparing to reduce their nonperforming loans at a more aggressive rate. Sources say that the revised plans the lenders will submit this fall will contain targets above the 10-15 percent reduction – or some 10 billion euros – that the existing plans provide for.

The Bank of Greece reported on Wednesday signs of fatigue in the commercial lenders’ efforts to reduce their nonperforming loan (NPL) stock, reflecting the difficulties of the mission.

Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) chief Daniele Nouy held talks with the heads of the country’s four systemic banks on Monday. The discussions centered around the intensification of efforts to reduce bad-loan stocks, streamlining bank finances, financing the economy and the lenders’ corporate governance.

Following the successful completion of the stress tests, banks are now preparing to issue subordinated bonds, which until now had been effectively impossible.

The Bank of Greece announced on Saturday the successful completion of the European Central Bank’s exercise for domestic banks simulating an adverse economic scenario.

Leonidas Fragkiadakis, the chief executive of National Bank of Greece, tendered his resignation on Friday, on the eve of the release of the Greek lenders’ stress test results.

The country’s systemic banks will need to pick up their pace in tackling nonperforming loans after the announcement of the stress test results, expected on Saturday.

The country’s four systemic banks saw their stock prices gain about 15 percent over the week after reports emerged that they have successfully negotiated their stress tests.

The European Central Bank will obtain direct and in-depth access to banks’ loan portfolios in their entirety through a huge statistical project named “Analytical Credit Dataset” (or “Anacredit” for short), which is currently under development.

National Bank CEO Leonidas Fragkiadakis stated on the sidelines of an event organized by the lender on Monday that all of the country’s four systemic banks will get a passing mark in the European Central Bank stress tests.