Greece's central bank chief has defended the government' s decision to transfer state lender ATEbank's healthy assets to Piraeus Bank, saying ATEbank was not viable and required a capital boost to continue operating. "The transaction process was done with absolute respect for law and transparency," central bank Governor George Provopoulos told parliament on Friday. "ATEbank
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Greece's bank support fund has told Greek banks eyeing Credit Agricole's Emporiki unit it will approve a sale only if the struggling Greek lender is fully recapitalised and funded before it is sold, a senior banking source said on Friday. Credit Agricole has been trying to sell Emporiki to limit its 4.6 billion euro exposure
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* Is the government meddling in the bank’s affairs? * The Cyprus banking crisis does not seem to be going away. Worse still, the problem has evolved from a can of worms to a Pandora’s Box with a power struggle within the island’s leading bank as the government continues to keep a stick-in-the-sand policy in
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When Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi came to power, he promised voters that he would achieve 64 goals by the end of his first 100 days in power. But a little over 30 days into his term, a new website says he has achieved just one of those goals. The website – the "Morsi Meter" –
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The European Central Bank will gear up to buy Italian and Spanish bonds on the open market but would only act after euro zone governments have activated bailout funds to do the same, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Thursday. Draghi indicated that any ECB intervention would start at the earliest in September and would
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World No.2 sporting goods maker Adidas said that a summer of sport was boosting demand for its three-stripe products, helping it stay a step ahead of rivals and avoid the worst of a slowdown in sales growth in China and Europe. "If the world collapses it might hit us as well, but I do believe,
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London cyclists demanded safer roads on Thursday after a young man on a bike was killed in a crash with an Olympic shuttle bus, just hours after Britain's Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins grabbed gold in the road time trial. The 28-year-old, named by police as Daniel Harris, was pronounced dead at the scene
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A Greek prosecutor has filed charges against investment bank Morgan Stanley for violating securities laws while acting as an adviser in a Greek bank takeover bid, court sources said on Thursday. The prosecutor has accused Morgan Stanley of raising its stake in Greece's Alpha Bank while it advised National Bank on plans to acquire its
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Consumer price inflation ticked up again in July to 2.2%, having eased to 1.8% in June. Annual inflation in many categories actually subsided in June. In particular there was a slight drop in the punishingly high prices of electricity, water, housing and gas, which rose by 12.8% compared with the same month of the previous
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