By E. Sakellari
[email protected]
Greece’s systemic banks are feverish preparing to achieve an upgrade of their preferred shares into “investment grade”, to the tune of four billion euros.
The development comes amid another upgrade by Moody’s of Greek banks’ prospects, which it now deems as “positive”, the first time the international credit ratings firm has bestowed such as rating for the Greek banking system in 11 years.
According to reports, upgrading shares to investment grade is considered as an alternate towards raising liquidity from international markets, until markets stabilize enough to allow Greek credit institutions to float new bond issues with favorable (for them) rates.
According to reliable sources that spoke with “N”, at least two out of the four Greek systemic banks are already in advanced negotiations with international credit rating firms, and are already in the process of due diligence in order to allow the latter to upgrade their shares into investment grade level.
