Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Piraeus Bank, Marfin Group, Bank of Greece --- Will Something Hit the Fan?

Back in May of this year, I had stumbled upon deals surrounding the Piraeus Bank and the Marfin Group. This was triggered by the announcement that Piraeus had successfully raised 500 MEUR in capital markets with the follow-up announcement that Piraeus would invest half of that, 250 MEUR, into the Marfin Group. That did not make sense at all to me and I looked further into the subject. I should add that I had absolutely no knowledge about Piraeus and/or the Marfin Group before then. My research provoked the following articles: 

Piraeus Bank, Marfin Group --- And the Real Greek Economy
One Helluva Way To Increase Bank Equity!

My general conclusion at the time was that the dealings between Piraeus and the Marfin Group were a 'smelly affair'; that the Marfin Group itself and its principal were extremely 'smelly'; and that a bank which gets involved in smelly deals with an extremely smelly group and its smelly principal starts smelling itself. A subsequent analysis of the Piraeus Bank suggested to me that the bank was pursuing smelly accounting practices.

Little did I know then that I might have been looking at what has the potential of becoming one of the greatest scandals of Greece's high finance with the former Governor of the Bank of Greece at its center. The article below provides most interesting reading! 

George Provopoulos: The most powerful man in the country a few months ago, now asuspect in a bank probe.

4 comments:

  1. No, it will be hushed up as usual. To make matters worse, the ECB stress test of the Greek banks will declare them clean as whistles.
    Lennard

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  2. Intersting klaus, it seems likely that pireus got a sweet deal at the taxpayers expense...this probably means that the negative goodwill was warranted to some extent...

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    1. Would it not have been the Cypriot government which would have given value away? Why would a government have given value away when it was just brought to its knees by financiers and give that value to other financiers?

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  3. In one case, companies transferring fuels should have pay 800 mil € for fines imposed by tax authorities. These companies exempted, i don't know the reason.
    Government make grace arrangements for some in order to receive political support in future, to have allies. Remittances- lists in foreign countries with indications for high tax evasion are poorly investigated.
    It's pity that opposition haven't build already a steady-practical agenda in economic issues so as to implement rules with justice for the majority.

    MS

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