Greece’s four largest banks have reported an aggregate burden of 5.25 billion euros ($6.5 billion) to comply with new accounting rules as European stress tests loom.
The introduction of International Finance Reporting Standard 9 is forcing Alpha Bank AE, Eurobank Ergasias SA, National Bank of Greece SA and Piraeus Bank SA to increase their provisions for bad loans. The four banks have reported the effect that IFRS9 will have over the past week, with Piraeus posting an impact of 1.6 billion euros on Tuesday, the largest among the lenders.