ATHENS – Despite progress made by Greek banks in reducing their stock of non-performing loans, there is no room for complacency since early signs showed there are new flows of NPLs and an increase in the settlement of loans, Christina Papakonstantinou, vice-governor of the Bank of Greece said on Tuesday.

Addressing the 4th NPL Summit, Papakonstantinou stressed that the experience so far from the implementation of a new bankruptcy legislation was positive but not satisfactory, adding that the pandemic created malfunctions in certain mechanisms. She noted that it was of the highest importance from now on to use all legislative tools and to support debtors with a sustainable outlook.

Commenting on developments in the so-called secondary loan market, Papakonstantinou said that this market could – under some conditions – attract the interest of new investors. A total of 23 servicers are operating in the Greek secondary NPL market, with three of them accounting for 80% of a market valued at 123 billion euros (end 2021).