...April 27, 2021 - On April 23, 2021, we raised the long-term rating on Greece to '##' from '##-' on our expectation government policies will steer toward structural reforms, which, together with the expected deployment of EU funds, would result in improved economic performance. - We believe this should boost business prospects, credit supply, and demand in Greece, and increase investor appetite for purchasing problem assets, helping financial institutions to offload them from their balance sheets. - In our view, the visible increase in domestic deposits coupled with ongoing balance sheet clean up and monetary developments, including access to the European Central Bank's (ECB's) targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO) funding, have led to improvements in funding and liquidity metrics for Greek banks. - However, we believe large Greek banks' quality of capital remains low, owing to a high share of deferred tax credits in their capital bases, and their earnings capacity is restraining...
