Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras said there is a possibility of relaxing capital controls by next week, after the European Central Bank Board meeting.
The BoG chief spoke after the presentation of the book “European Banking Supervision: The first eighteen months” where he supported the recapitalization of the banks directly from the European Stability Mechanism. As he stated, such an option would be far more effective than the one followed by Athens. However, he said, petty political considerations prevailed.
Stournaras said that easing on capital controls can take place as early as next week, when the ECB board of directors discusses the state of Greek banks.
In the book there is a special reference to the Bank of Attica. The author of the chapter, Miranda Xafa, claims the bank is likely to go to liquidation, as it has not fully covered the capital increase required after the stress test.
Stournaras expressed the opposite view, stressing that Bank of Attica currently has one of the highest capital adequacy ratios in the euro zone. However he admitted that the bank faces management issues, which are about to be solved.
Spyros Pantelias, Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of Greece, argued that most Greek banks have the necessary capital to effectively address the problem of non-performing loans.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
