By A. Doga
The inaugural trimester report by the Bank of Greece (BoG) on Wednesday to chart the course for a memorandum-mandated reduction of Greek banks' "Olympus-sized" mountain of non-performing exposures (NPEs) cited the restructuring of "bad loans" worth 31 billion euros over the next three-and-a-half years, as well as "haircuts" worth 14 billion euros.
The goal, according to the BoG, is to cut the overall load by 40.2 billion euros, of which 23.1 billion euros is business and corporate lending.
The quarterly reports by the BoG will also be reviewed by the European Stability Mechanism's (ESM) Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).
According to the inaugural report, since the beginning of June 2016 through September 2016, essentially the pilot phase, Greece's systemic banks reduced NPEs by 1 percent, from 106.9 billion euros to 106 billion euros, exceeding the target.
The index for NPEs remained at 51 percent, whereas the goal for non-performing loans (NPLs) was not achieved, as the latter reached 79.3 billion euros -- up 1.5 percent in relation to the target of 78.1 billion euros.
The index for NPLs remained fixed at 38 percent, one percentage point higher than the goal of 37 percent.
Four similar quarterly reports will come in 2017, followed by biannual reports in 2018 and 2019.
NPEs reached 106.9 billion euros at the beginning of the initiative to reduce the bad debt in June 2016, with the lofty target now being 66.7 billion euros by the end of 2019.
