Brussels, 27/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 27 February, the governor of the Bank of Greece, George Provopoulos, said that the new capital requirements for Greek banks would be announced next week.
In order to ensure full transparency, the Bank of Greece will next week publish the results of the stress tests on Greek banks and details of the methodology used, said Provopoulos at the unveiling of the bank's 2013 annual report on the Greek economy. Financial media reported last week that Greek banks would need somewhere between €5 billion and €6 billion to cover bad debt. On Monday, however, the Financial Times published an International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimate that Greek banks will need nearly €20 billion. On Wednesday, Provopoulos held talks with representatives of the troika of lenders (EU, European Central Bank and IMF), who are in Athens to carry out their regular audit of public finance ahead of the disbursement of the next aid instalment for the country. Provopoulos said that talks would continue with the troika over the next few days on technical aspects of the stress test methodology. (LC)