Greek financial crisis

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In a push to tackle Greek’s bad debt exposure, the Greek Parliament has approved a new asset purchase scheme nicknamed ‘Hercules’. The scheme aims to assist Greek banks deleverage their non-performing loans (NPLs) without the need for the government to step in with subsidies.

Under the scheme, banks will sell non-performing loans to a special purpose vehicle, which will use proceeds from the issuance of tranched notes to market investors to purchase the loans. The Greek government will provide a public guarantee for the senior notes in the securitisation vehicle at a market rate.
Continue Reading Greek’s bad debt exposure – Hercules to the rescue!

On 28 January the competent authority for supervising securities in Greece, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC), made use of its powers of intervention in exceptional circumstances and decided to introduce yet another emergency measure under Article 20 of Regulation No 236/2012, also known as the EU Short Selling Regulation. As defined in the Regulation, short selling consists in the sale of securities that the seller does not own, with the intention of buying back an identical security at a later point in time in order to be able to deliver the security.
Continue Reading Hellenic Capital Market Commission – New Emergency Prohibition under the EU Short Selling Regulation