Greece's NBG has credit lines of 5.5 bln euros

National Bank (NBGr.AT), Greece's biggest lender, has increased credit lines with foreign lenders, as it strives to regain full access to the interbank market, which it lost because of the country's debt crisis.
"We opened interbank lines exceeding 5.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion)," chief executive Apostolos Tamvakakis told shareholders on Friday. Earlier this month, an NBG official had said the group had repo lines of up to 4.7 billion euros with maturities up to 12 months, and would continue an effort to broaden funding sources.This signalled improved access to the wholesale funding markets which shut their doors to Greek lenders in the wake of the crisis, forcing banks to turn to the European Central Bank for funding. Greek banks had to use the ECB as lender of last resort for liquidity, using Greek government bonds and guarantees as collateral.
Latest data showed ECB lending to Greek banks dropped 1.7 percent month-on-month to 94.3 billion euros in September.

In October, NBG strengthened its balance sheet via a 1.8 billion euro rights issue. It is also eyeing proceeds of another billion from the planned sale of a 20 percent stake in Turkish unit Finansbank in early 2011.
"After the sale of the Finansbank stake, the capital adequacy ratio will be between 14.5 and 15 percent, one of the highest in Europe," Tamvakakis said. NBG passed a European stress test in July, scoring a Tier 1 capital ratio of 7.4 percent under an extreme scenario simulation. EFG Eurobank, the country's second-largest lender which also passed the July stress test, said earlier this month it had repo lines totaling 4.0 billion euros with foreign lenders, having used 3.0 billion to fund its non-Greek bond portfolio

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Greece's NBG leads bank stocks higher on capital boost

Shares in National Bank gained more than 4 percent on Wednesday, leading Greek banks higher, as tighter bond yield spreads and the completion of a big rights issue improved investors' risk appetite.
"There is improved sentiment as regards Greek risk, reflected in the bond market with tighter yield spreads and in the equity market with the oversubscription of NBG's rights offering," said analyst Nick Koskoletos at EFG Eurobank Securities.

At 0818 GMT shares in NBG, Greece's largest lender, were up 3.93 percent at 8.45 euros, with the Athens bourse's banking index .FTATBNK gaining 3.18 percent and outperforming the broader stock market's 1.77 percent rise. NBG's 1.8 billion euro rights issue which ended on Oct 11 was covered 1.83 times, a welcome confidence boost for the banking sector, battered by the country's debt crisis.
"There is a risk-on trade with regards to Greece, NBG stands to benefit given its best-in-class capital position after its rights offering," Koskoletos said.

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