Piraeus Bank Group successfully passed another EBA stress test simulation

Piraeus Bank Group has successfully passed 2011 EU-wide stress test conducted by the European Banking Authority (EBA), in cooperation with the Bank of Greece, the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (EC) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).

The EU-wide stress test, carried out across 91 banks covering over 65% of the EU banking system total assets, seeks to assess the resilience of European banks to severe shocks and their specific solvency to hypothetical stress events under certain restrictive conditions.

Piraeus Bank meets the capital benchmark set out for the purpose of the stress test. The Bank will continue to ensure that appropriate capital level is maintained and in addition has taken certain business decisions and is planning to undertake additional actions aiming to mitigate the risks and increase its capital. Those actions include the issue of a convertible bond loan up to €250 mn that the general shareholders meeting has already decided and preliminary agreement for the sale of its subsidiary Piraeus Bank Egypt which will further increase Core Tier 1 capital ratio of Piraeus Bank to 6.3% under the adverse scenario in 2012.

Piraeus Bank will work with Bank of Greece to determine an execution plan of other mitigating measures, taking also into consideration the Μemorandum of Εconomic and Financial Policy.