National Bank of Greece exits SEE markets

The National Bank of Greece (NBG) plans to sell its stakes in banks in southeastern Europe - Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, Katimerini reports. However, NBG has reached an agreement with the European Commission's competition watchdog to keep a majority stake in Turkey's Finansbank, the web portal 24vesti.mk has reported.

It is said that the base in Skopje should be consolidated and improved, but this is going to be a long process that will take between five and seven years to complete. The web portal says that NBG's withdrawal from Skopje-based Stopanska Banka is nothing but speculation as this bank had EUR 2 billion worth of deposits two months ago and is in excellent financial condition.

There is no official announcement of any change in the structure of shareholders of Stopanska Banka that continuously achieves success and is financially independent from the NBG Group. This bank is under the supervision of the National Bank of Macedonia.