According to sources, the interest of Greek banks in the region should be taken for granted and in some cases it has already been expressed. The banks are driven in this direction by the large number of companies developing operations in the “new” world along with the fact that the Greek banks now have funds for investments.
National Bank and Piraeus Bank participate in the forum, as well as OPAP. It should be noted that Eurobank has already started discussions about opening offices in the region.
However, the region’s investment interest in our country is also considered a given, an interest which has a multinational character since the investment funds located in Dubai come from East and West.
The analysts’ questions were focused on the country’s macroeconomics, since growth creates good conditions for profitability in banks and businesses. With regard to the banks, they focused on loans (NPEs and credit expansion) but mainly on the hot topic of dividends.
Loans
Investors are worried about whether bad loans will have an impact on banks’ balance sheets amid high interest rates.
This is precisely the issue raised by analysts for all European banks. However, due to the memoranda and the small and quality lending to their customers, Greece’s credit institutions do not seem to be at risk of similar problems, banking officials noted.
Credit Expansion
Investors wish to have a complete picture of the management of credit expansion on the part of the banks.
The truth is that credit expansion appears to be rather problematic based on January’s data and this is because there were once again significant repayments of loans from companies to banks. However, credit institutions estimate that the picture will improve with lower interest rates.
Dividends
The SSM’s recent indication that Greek banks should resolve the deferred tax issue has created some concern among investors regarding the crucial issue of dividends. This “demand” of the supervisor combined with the expectation of the banks to return a significant part of their profits to their shareholders in the coming years creates reasonable questions for investors.
Dividends are now a priority for banks since they know that for two years all the banks will have significant profits despite the imminent drop in interest rates.
In any case, the SSM is not going to ban the banks from distributing dividends, but it is asking for more restrained announcements from their side. Greek banks are expected to distribute dividends of 10%-30% after receiving the relevant approval from their supervisor. However, they have planned much higher returns for investors in their three-year business plans.
