Prosecutor to probe loans provided to various firms

Banks have received a prosecutor’s order to participate in an investigation over possible legal violations in the issue of corporate loans totaling 7.7 billion euros.

The order concerns a probe into the entire set of credit issued to a multitude of large and medium-sized groups, including some that constitute the cream of Greek entrepreneurship, according to a report on the euro2day.gr website.

Bank officials have told Kathimerini that among the loan recipients to be investigated are some of the country’s strongest industrial groups that have not shown any problems in the repayment of their loans. They are enterprises in various sectors such as metallurgy, the cement industry, construction, information technology, shipping, energy and oil.

Credit sector sources have expressed surprise at the involvement of healthy businesses in the probe and speculate that the prosecutor’s order came about either due to complaints that the Financial Crimes Squad and the judicial authorities are being forced to investigate, or to overzealousness. Some bank sources have gone as far as to speak of a peculiar mode of exercising pressure on lenders.