Greek Banks See $6.5 Billion Hit From New Accounting Rules

Lenders adjust their provisioning rules as IFRS9 approaches
The results of an ECB stress test are expected in early May

A pedestrian passes Piraeus Bank SA bank branch in Thessaloniki, Greece, on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016. Greek markets have rallied this month on expectations creditors may finally ease the country’s debt at a Dec. 5 meeting of euro-area finance ministers.Photographer: Konstantinos Tsakalidis/Bloomberg

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By Sotiris Nikas

March 13, 2018 at 12:45 PM UTC

Updated on

March 13, 2018 at 3:08 PM UTC

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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.