German Banks Top French on $23 Billion Greek Debt, BIS Says

German lenders were the biggest foreign owners of Greek government bonds with $22.7 billion in holdings last year, making them a likely negotiation partner in burden-sharing deals for the country, data from the Bank for International Settlements showed.

French banks, which led the group of Greek creditors with overall claims amounting to $56.7 billion, trailed their German peers on sovereign debt with $15 billion, according to the June report from the Basel, Switzerland-based BIS. The overall figure for French banks was inflated by $39.6 billion in lending to companies and households, mainly because of Credit Agricole SA’s Greek unit, Emporiki Bank SA. German lenders have no major units in the country.