Greece has emerged on the other side of the European Stability Mechanism’s three-year emergency programme, after receiving €61.9bn ($71.4bn) in support of “macroeconomic adjustment” and bank recapitalisation. While this means that Greece can borrow at market rates for the first time in eight years, the nightmare is not yet over for the Mediterranean country’s banking sector.
Since the Greek tragedy began to unfold in 2010, the country’s four largest banks by Tier 1 capital – Alpha Bank, Piraeus Bank, Eurobank Ergasias and National Bank of Greece (NBG) – have had almost a third wiped off their aggregate balance sheet in dollar terms. In one of the more dramatic declines, NBG went from $161bn in assets in 2010 to $78bn in 2017.
