Greek banks this week spelled out, in numbers and dates, their goals for reducing non-performing loans burdening their spread sheets, with Piraeus Bank, for instance, aiming for a NPL figure of 10.2 billion euros by the end of 2019, down from the current 23.9-billion-euro “hole”.
In a bulletin, the bank also said the goal for NPLs exposure, from the current 34.1 billion euros, is 20.3 billion euros by December 2019, which would mean a best-case scenario entailing a percentile reduction of 58 and 41 percent, respectively.
The same systemic bank said NPLs in its portfolio were reduced by 800 million euros over the first 10-month period of 2016, with the target being one billion euros for the entire year.
Another Greek lender, Eurobank, announced a goal of NPLs elimination in its portfolio by 37 to 38 percent by the end of 2019, or in absolute terms, from the current value of 23 billion euros to 15 billion euros.
The measures cited to achieve the figure include long-term restructuring (20 percent); sell-off of NPL portfolios to distress funds (20 percent) and liquidation of collateral (20 percent). The remaining 40 percent, according to Eurobank, will be achieved via write-offs.
Based on a timetable unveiled by the Athens-based credit institution, 25 percent of the overall goal should be achieved over the 2016-17 period; 35 percent in 2018 and the remaining 40 percent, an ambitious figure, in 2019.
In terms of the breakdown of Eurobank's NPLs, 55 percent of the total included in the figure are business and corporate loans, the rest are retail loans, mainly extended to individual borrowers and in the form of mortgages.
