Brussels, 10/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 9 July, the European Commission gave the go-ahead to a restructuring plan for Alpha Bank of Greece, including the acquisition and integration of Emporiki Bank, a former subsidiary of French bank Crédit Agricole.
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said: “Alpha Bank's restructuring will make a significant contribution to reinforcing the viability of the Greek banking sector, to the benefit of the Greek economy”.
Alpha Bank's restructuring plan provides for further downsizing of international operations and reinforcement of Greek operations, mainly through rationalisation of operating expenses, reinforcement of the net interest income, strengthening of the balance sheet and strict risk monitoring.
In its assessment, the Commission took into account the fact that the difficulties of Alpha Bank did not come from excessive risk-taking but primarily from the sovereign debt crisis and the related exceptionally protracted and deep recession which started in 2008. The Commission says that shareholders, through their participation in the successive capital increases, and subordinated debt holders, through the liability management exercises, have contributed significantly to reducing the amount of capital needs that had to be injected by the state. The Commission opened an investigation in July 2012 to examine the raft of bailouts for Alpha Bank. The current restructuring plan was notified to the Commission in June 2014. (EL)