At the start of March 2014, the Greek central bank published the results of a stress test carried out on the country’s systemic banks to determine any extra capital needs after seven years of recession. Those needs would come on top of the mix of public and private recapitalisation that took place in the second quarter of 2013, including the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund’s acquisition of majority stakes in all four systemic banks. The test showed a shortfall of €2.18bn for National Bank of Greece (NBG).
But the bank’s management concluded that this arose essentially from its Turkish subsidiary, Finansbank, “on the back of an extremely conservative stress scenario that was included in the baseline scenario of the exercise”. Consequently, the bank announced in a press release its intention to implement a capital plan within the April 15 deadline set by the central bank, but “without raising new equity capital”.
