The Eurogroup Working Group (EWG reviewed Greece’s progress on reforms on Saturday and gave a positive compliance reforms that allow the disbursement of the 2-bln-euro tranche benchmarked for Greece.

Eurogroup Chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem released a statement acknowledging that Greek authorities have completed the first set of milestones and the financial sector measures were satisfactory for the successful recapitalization process to begin.

Here is the full statement:

On the basis of a final compliance notice from the institutions, the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG) agreed that the Greek authorities have now completed the first set of milestones and the financial sector measures that are essential for a successful recapitalisation process. This is good news. Intense work at all levels has paid off. I thank all involved for reaching this important result. It allows us to move forward with programme implementation and contributes to restoring confidence in the Greek economy. The agreement paves the way for the formal approval by the ESM Board of Directors on Monday 23 November for disbursing the €2 billion sub-tranche linked to the first set of milestones. Furthermore this, following the relevant state aid decisions, makes subsequent case-by-case decisions possible of the ESM Board of Directors on the transfer to the HFSF of the funds needed for the recapitalisation of the Greek banking sector out of the €10 billion earmarked for this purpose.

Now, all that is required is the formal approval by directors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) on Monday, November 23, for the money can be transferred to the Athens’ bank sector for which 20 billion euros have already been earmarked. An unnamed official told Reuters news agency that Greek banks require somewhere between six to nine billion euros.