LONDON (Standard&Poor's) Jan. 21, 2002--Standard&Poor's today affirmed its long-term triple-'B'-plus and short-term 'A-2' counterparty credit ratings on National Bank of Greece S.A. (NBG) and Alpha Bank A.E. (Alpha). The outlook on both institutions remains stable. The affirmations follow the announcement that NBG and Alpha, the two largest banking groups in Greece, have discontinued their merger discussions due to disagreements between the senior management of both banks. The proposed merger would have created an enlarged banking group that would rank within the 50-largest banks in Europe by total assets. The ratings on NBG reflect the bank's size and powerful position in the Greek financial markets, strong liquidity, and good levels of capitalization and profitability. In addition, asset
