National Bank’s lending rates will move higher from now despite the rise in interest rates, General Manager of Corporate and Investment Banking and Member of the Executive Committee at National Bank, Vassilis Karamouzis, said on Tuesday, adding that only the Corporate department of the bank will grant 1.3 billion euro loans by the end of the year with an emphasis on tourism and energy.
Higher interest rates have affected credit expansion rates not because loans were not granted, Karamouzis explained, but because of significant repayments as a result of increased liquidity.
He estimated that the deferred tax that often appears as a problem in banks’ balance sheets will decrease from 62% to 50% in three years, while he believes that this was also the main reason why the supervisory authorities did not let the Greek banks distribute a dividend.
He also said that he does not expect the bank’s balance sheet to be at risk from bad loans following the rise in interest rates.
Regarding the stress tests, he said that the bank will record a strong performance and pass the tests to be announced on July 28, with the National Bank’s general shareholders meeting taking place on the same day.
