The S&P credit rating agency announced the upgrading of the creditworthy four Greek banks – Alpha Bank, Eurobank, The Greek National Bank and Piraeus Bank – following the upgrading of the Greek government’s lender.

“On June 25, 2018, we upgraded Greece’s long-term foreign and domestic currency ratings to from B to B+ due to the reduction in debt servicing risks. We anticipate that the successful completion by Greece of the fourth ESM evaluation will help improve depositors and investors’ confidence in the banking system, “said the company, adding that:” For this reason, we are increasing our long-term and short-term credit assessments by Alpha Bank, Eurobank, National Bank and Piraeus Bank to “B-/ B” from “CCC +/C”.

Furthermore, the credit rating agency says that “the outlook for ratings is stable, reflecting our view that the risks to the creditworthiness of the banks are balanced”.

The upgrading, the company notes, “also reflects our view that improved liquidity and the growth of the economy will support the ability of Greek banks to maintain their financial commitments and to gradually improve their balance sheets over the long term”.

“We expect growth of confidence and the ease of capital controls will pave the way for a steadier inflow of deposits and improve banks’ access to capital markets. We estimate that some 13 billion or 9% of deposits have returned to Greek banks from mid May 2017 to the end of May 2018 and banks have restricted their dependence on the European Central Bank’s liquidity facilities by 63% or 36 billion euros.”

Source: balkaneu