Transparency and management of bad loans

Alternate Finance Minister Giorgos Houliarakis came under criticism at a recent London Business School conference from investors who feel that they are not being adequately informed by Athens, Kathimerini has learned.

“Up until now, we got the information that we required from the institutions’ reports on the bailout program reviews,” explained Christian Kopf, head of Fixed Income Fund Management at Union Investment, one of Germany’s biggest funds, who was present at the London conference.

“The Greek government does not make enough of an effort to build a narrative that will convince investors. It didn’t even publish a prospectus about January’s [seven-year] bond issue…” he added.

The question that was most hotly debated at the conference, however, was the management of Greek banks’ huge pile of nonperforming loans, with the speakers appearing divided between the current, gradualist approach and a more radical solution.

“Everything will depend on the stress tests,” one of the delegates told Kathimerini.

“However the Greek Finance Ministry appears to be ignoring the problem quite deliberately – as though it were none of its business.”