ATHENS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Greek bank shares are likely to
rebound strongly in 2017 after years of declines as the economy
gets back on its feet and confidence returns, the head of the
Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) said on Wednesday.
"The very first signals will be seen from the end of next
year, but I would expect the very strong change to be seen in
2017," HFSF Chief Executive Aris Xenofos told reporters.
"2016 will hopefully be positive, but I think the main
difference will be actually seen in 2017," he said.
Controlled by the Greek government, the HFSF received money
from the euro zone bailout fund ESM especially for bank
recapitalisations and bought convertible bonds of Greek banks so
as not to dilute their existing shareholder base.
Greek bank shares .FTATBNK have been on a steady decline
since 2010, hit by the sovereign debt crisis that was triggered
by the disastrous state of Greek public finances.
The value of the Greek banks has slumped to about 1 billion
euros ($1.1 billion) from 36 billion at the start of the crisis.
The banks have been recapitalised three times already and
the last round completed this week with private and public money
will allow them to withstand about 100 billion euros in
non-performing loans.
The banks' capital adequacy ratio is now about 17 percent
and is expected to rise to above 20 percent in 2018, Xenofos
said.
"That by itself explains why we feel confident that this
recapitalisation is strong," he said.
($1 = 0.9450 euros)