Systemic banks are restructuring their targets at many levels and trying to focus on a specific field of activities in which they can distinguish themselves in order to have significant profits in the post-interest rate rise era.
Greek banks have strong and weak points:
Their weaknesses:
– Deferred tax is a brake on improving their capital quality and this issue requires a long-term approach with strong profitability, which currently exists but must continue.
– In several credit institutions due to the voluntary redundancy programs but also the closing of many branches, their network looks disorganized, not well paid, and hardly pursues production goals in the classical sense of the term. This, among other things, makes credit expansion difficult.
Their strengths:
– The lending portfolio is extremely strong, since the banks’ customers overcame the wounds of the 12-year crisis and endured. It is therefore very difficult to have new bad loans, with few exceptions (Avramar).
– Each bank has acquired an informal specialization and the corresponding clientele that can be easily controlled.
– Credit institutions have significant corporate governance and preparedness.
Every bank is looking for a leading role and therefore focusing on:
Eurobank is strengthening and will further strengthen its presence abroad and it is the one that is planning this expansion much earlier than the other banks. What the bank wants is to achieve the expansion with the fewest possible capital losses, since it must at all costs reward its shareholders in the 2023 financial year.
National Bank has the best capital quality, as it was recorded in the stress test, and it places significant emphasis on energy projects, but also on green development. At the same time, it is investing significant amounts in technology.
Piraeus Bank has significantly recovered. It is trying to re-approach its old base, which is the small and medium-sized business, and gain an advantage on a customer base different from other banks, through mobile banking.
Alpha Bank, traditionally strong in private banking, enhances its role in this sector, while carrying out significant projects in the real estate sector, which have so far been successful. At the same time the bank has managed to maintain a strong base abroad (Romania), which allows it to see the expansion project from a different perspective.
