Praxia must quickly find cash or face ax

Banker Bob Diamond, formerly chief executive at Barclays and founding partner and CEO of Atlas Merchant Capital Fund LP, only has 12 working days to collect funds of 30 million euros to ensure the operation of Praxia Bank, the digital lender in which Atlas is the exclusive stakeholder.

The time set by the Bank of Greece for Atlas to meet the demands of the basic capital adequacy ratio is ticking away and, despite some optimism expressed about finding a solution, time is not on Praxia’s side.

Some three years after the launch of the ambitious venture for the creation of a digital bank that would have made a difference in the credit system, free from the problems of the crisis, Praxia’s owner is already heading toward divesting, and has announced a further shrinking of the bank’s business plan while not ruling out its closure altogether.

The abandonment of the five-year business plan, providing for loan issues totaling 5 billion euros with an emphasis on corporations and households via digital channels, is illustrated by the upcoming termination of contracts for the vast majority of employees, announced last week by the bank’s management, which is led by Anastasia Sakellariou.

That was the result of the owner’s inability to support his investment in Greece, and points to his aim of damage limitation, after having poured some 100 million euros into Praxia Bank.