Greek Bank Wars Leave $187 Billion With Uncertain Management
- National Bank of Greece board at loggerheads with recap fund
- Piraeus Bank led by interim managers amid shareholder discord
As Greek banks struggle to clean up their balance sheets of bad loans, investors have been left pondering another uncertainty: Who will lead the country’s biggest lenders?
The General Council of Greece’s bank recapitalization fund, HFSF, may convene Monday to discuss whether to call an extraordinary meeting of National Bank of Greece shareholders aimed at forcing the lender’s chief executive officer, Leonidas Fragkiadakis, and other board members to resign, two people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. Last week, the board of directors of NBG rejected an HFSF request to appoint Dimitris Tsitsiragos as its non-executive chairman, electing instead octogenarian Panayiotis Thomopoulos against the wishes of its biggest shareholder.