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Article: To the Balkans and Beyond.
- Article from:
- The Banker
- Article date:
- May 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 FT Business. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Kerin Hope
The four big banks in Greece have built a combined market share of close to 20% of assets in south-east Europe over the past decade through a mix of acquisitions of local lenders and organic growth.
But as the region's fragile economies buckle under the impact of the global crisis, banks are having to rethink their strategy. Network expansion has stalled and lending has been curtailed. The Greek central bank has warned against using funds from the government's EU28bn bank support package - Greek tax payers' money - to fund operations abroad, and has strengthened liquidity requirements at group level for foreign subsidiaries.
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