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DatabankJanuary 3 2013

Rebuilding the Greek banking scene

A series of mergers will change the shape of the Greek banking sector, with three dominant players pulling away from the pack.
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Under pressure from the EU, the Greek banking sector is striving to consolidate and reinforce itself after the damage inflicted by five years of recession and two rounds of sovereign debt restructuring in 2012. In most cases, balance sheets will have shrunk significantly during 2012, as bad loans and holdings of government bonds are written down. However, the year-end 2011 asset figures give an idea of the market share that newly combined banking groups will hold.

By far the most dramatic move is the merger of the country’s two largest banks, National Bank of Greece (NBG) and Eurobank. The new entity, which will keep only the NBG name, will create a market leader with end-year 2011 assets of almost $250bn, more than double the size of the second largest bank and approaching a 50% market share. There are more modest market share gains from Alpha Bank’s acquisition of Emporiki Bank from Crédit Agricole, and Piraeus Bank’s purchase of Société Générale’s Geniki Bank and formerly state-owned Agricultural Bank of Greece (ATE).

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