The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development expects its first deal to take over bad Greek loans in the coming weeks, one of its top officials said. Sabina Dziurman, the EBRD's director for Greece and Cyprus, told Reuters the moves should set the bank's spending in Greece this year on course to top the 320 million euros ($363.97 million) laid out last year.
"We expect some transactions to be announced in the next few weeks," Dziurman told the Reuters Global Markets Forum. "I'd be disappointed if it (investment) was less this year." Dziurman said the EBRD had been positively surprised by the interest in Greece from the private sector so far and was talking to potential non-performing loan (NPL) investors who could help manage bad loan packages going forward.
In Greece, laws prevent bad loan portfolios being sold or put in special off-balance sheet vehicles, but they can be packaged for specialist firms to manage, who then receive a contract fee. The EBRD has already invested 250 million euros of equity stakes in Greece's four biggest banks - Alpha Bank, Eurobank, National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank - that are all at least part-owned by Greece's state-backed bank rescue fund. A Greek official told Reuters last week that the EBRD was also set to buy a 15 percent stake in Piraeus Bank's insurance arm European Reliance.
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