The ratings on National Bank of Greece S.A. (NBG) reflect the bank's size and powerful position in the Greek financial markets, its strong liquidity, good capitalization, and satisfactory profitability and asset quality. With assets totaling €49 billion at Sept. 30, 2001, NBG is the largest bank in Greece and holds a prime position in the country's financial markets, with a share of customer deposits of about 29% and 20% of total lending. A proposed merger between NBG and Alpha Bank A.E. (BBB+/Stable/A-2), the second-largest bank in Greece that was initiated in late 2001, collapsed in January 2002, due to disagreements between the senior management of both banks. The proposed merger would have created a national banking champion, ranked within the
