The four big banks in Greece have built a combined market share of close to 20% of assets in south-east Europe over the past decade through a mix of acquisitions of local lenders and organic growth.
But as the region's fragile economies buckle under the impact of the global crisis, banks are having to rethink their strategy. Network expansion has stalled and lending has been curtailed. The Greek central bank has warned against using funds from the government's €28bn bank support package - Greek tax payers' money - to fund operations abroad, and has strengthened liquidity requirements at group level for foreign subsidiaries.