Germany’s biggest banks and insurers have agreed to take part in a second bailout package for debt-stricken Greece, according to the German Finance Minister.
Wolfgang Schäuble confirmed reports that banks had agreed to roll over €3.2 billion (£2.9 billion) of Greek bonds that mature by the end of 2014, but insisted that he had no further details.
“I’m happy that the representatives of the financial sector have said they are ready to participate in a European package for a second aid programme for Greece,” he said in Berlin yesterday.
Josef Ackermann, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, described the deal as a “voluntary and substantial” contribution in support of Greece.
This comes only days after President Sarkozy confirmed that French banks, which are among the financial institutions most exposed to the Greek debt crisis, had agreed a plan to roll over their holdings of maturing Greek bonds.
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He said that French banks would be offered 30-year Greek bonds with a coupon equivalent to the eurozone’s lending rate to Athens plus a premium based on Greece’s future economic growth rate. The banks are set to reinvest 70 per cent of the proceeds from bonds that fall due between 2011 and 2013.
Half of that would be rolled over into 30-year bonds. The remainder would be reinvested in AAArated investments and put into a special-purpose vehicle, to act as a built-in guarantee for the repayment of the 30-year Greek bonds.
The Treasury continued to insist last night that it had no such plans but was continuing to monitor the situation.
The Greek Parliament yesterday voted through the five-year austerity package that the Government needs to implement in order to receive the latest tranche of the £110 billion eurozone package agreed last year.