The Cyprus financial crisis in March 2013 could hardly have come at a more alarming time for Greek banks. The troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had set Greece a deadline of April 2013 to begin recapitalising its own banks, ravaged by the 2012 Greek sovereign debt restructuring. Failure to find private investors to commit fresh money equivalent to at least 10% of the capital base would result in full nationalisation.
To make matters worse, Paul Koster, the Dutch head of Greece’s bank bail-out vehicle, the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF), resigned for personal reasons in March 2013. Within days of walking through the door, his successor Anastasia Sakellariou, a former Credit Suisse investment banker, had a further problem in her in-tray. Troika officials privately warned the management of two of the country’s top four banks, Eurobank and National Bank of Greece (NBG), that their planned merger was unwelcome, and would not be eligible for the international financial support package.
