Bankers expect ECB to reduce Tier 1 capital requirements
Top Greek bankers expect the European Central Bank to accept their request to level down the Core Tier I capital adequacy index of local lenders, currently at 9 percent, to that applying to banks in the rest of the eurozone (8 percent), but stopped short of raising the issue in Frankfurt when a number of them visited the ECB to take part in a meeting of 40 major European banks on Monday.
Speaking to Kathimerini, senior credit sector officials said that the ECB will accept their demand for an 8 percent index, which will free up some 2 billion euros of much needed cash for the funding of the economy. Two billion euros of capital will allow banks to issue 20 billion euros of loans, which amount to 10 percent of the current credit total.
Meanwhile banks estimate there was a marginal decline in the total level of deposits in Greek accounts in October, as they added up to 161 billion euros last month from 161.3 billion in September.
