HFSF to disengage from banks

The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) will have to prepare a strategy for the concession of its stakes in the country’s main banks, ahead of the prospect of its full divestment from the systemic lenders by 2025, according to a Finance Ministry draft law that is currently up for consultation with the country’s creditors and will change the operation of both the HFSF and the banks considerably.

Sources have informed Kathimerini that the extension of the fund’s lifetime to 2025, from the existing provision for a 2022 deadline, does not rule out a disengagement of the bank rescue fund earlier than that; the bill provides that the divestment strategy could be brought forward by up to two years (i.e. 2023) through a decision by the finance minister and with the consent of the systemic stability council.

This is the first time that the bill has set as its priority the HFSF divestment from banks in which it holds a stake, setting as its main objective – besides the HFSF contribution to the credit system’s stability – “the efficient concession of shares it holds through a specific strategy, aimed at the full and complete divestment in a timely fashion.”