Banks begin preparations for new round of stress tests

The managers of the country’s four systemic banks will travel to Frankfurt this Friday for the first round of talks with officials from the Single Supervisory Mechanism(SSM), ahead of new stress tests on local lenders.

European authorities have decided to bring forward the new tests in order to have a clear picture of Greek lenders’ capital requirements as early as possible and to determine what strategy will need to be followed. According to a decision at last week’s eurozone summit, the Greek credit system will receive funds of 10 to 25 billion euros for its recapitalization.

Domestic bank officials estimate that if the new stress tests begin within next month they will take about two months for their implementation and, if all goes well, the recapitalization process can be completed by the end of this year.