Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-05-28

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Greek banks healthy

[01] Greek banks healthy

Addressing a seminar on the international financial crisis, organized by the Bank of Greece, Arapoglou said liquidity in the banking system has become not only sparse but more expensive and stressed that a gradual recovery of confidence in markets was helping banks reducing their dependence from European Central Bank's short-term liquidity, raising money through bond issues.

Commenting on bank lending in Greece, Arapoglou, said demand would remain high, compared with other mature markets in Europe, despite a financial crisis, while he said that banks' asset quality was expected to be downgraded further.

A government-sponsored program to boost liquidity in the Greek economy was not subsidization of the banking system, while it did not carry any burden for Greek taxpayers, but would create significant revenues for the state budget, Nikolaos Nanopoulos, Eurobank's chief executive, told the seminar.

Nanopoulos said Greek banks have no exposure to high-risk investment products, nor they have been involved in speculative activities. On the contrary, they followed structured strategies combining development on solid bases, relatively low leverage, relatively limited dependence on money markets and controlled risk taking.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of the Chairman of National Bank of Greece Takis Arapoglou.

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