11.1.13
The Postbank is to be split in a “good” and “bad” bank, with the healthy part continuing as an independent bank, with the Financial Stability Fund as its sole shareholder.
This development comes in response to the lack of offers, the deadline for which was 10am on Friday. The Bank of Greece is expected to announce the Postbank’s split, along the lines of the Proton and ATEBank splits, later in the day.
The “new” Postbank will continue autonomously for a few months, allowing the other banks to deal with the first stages of mergers that were scheduled last year. Ethniki and Eurobank decided to pull out of the second phase of the competition, due to their request for postponing the bank’s sale for after the public suggestion of trading stocks, during the merge.
Alpha Bank, whose proposal was considered to be unsatisfactory, was also not interested in making a better offer, without knowing who it would have to compete. The offer by Trapeza Attikis was also ignored, since it seems rather unlikely that it would be able to support a larger bank and create a group that is independent both in terms of capital and financing.
