The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will take over non-performing loans in the coming weeks, according to Reuters.

Sabina Dziurman, the EBRD’s director for Greece and Cyprus, told Reuters the moves should set the bank’s spending in Greece this year on course to top the 320 million euros laid out last year.

“We expect some transactions to be announced in the next few weeks,” Dziurman told the Reuters Global Markets Forum. “I’d be disappointed if it (investment) was less this year.”
Dziurman said the EBRD had been positively surprised by the interest in Greece from the private sector so far and was talking to potential non-performing loan (NPL) investors who could help manage bad loan packages going forward.

The article points out, though, that Greek law does not allow bad loan portfolios being sold, but they can be transferred to specialist firms to manage them.

According to Reuters, the EBRD has already invested 250 million euros of equity stakes in Greece’s four biggest banks — Alpha Bank(ACBr.AT), Eurobank (EURBr.AT), National Bank of Greece (NBGr.AT) and Piraeus Bank (BOPr.AT) — that are all at least part-owned by Greece’s state-backed bank rescue fund.