The stake sale in the National Bank of Greece added to a program that has netted the government 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) over the past 12 months and has effectively returned the entire sector to the private sector, Bloomberg reports.

The speed of these sales makes Greece an exception, but it is not alone in returning banks to investors. From Ireland and Italy to the UK and Germany, European governments are selling stakes they’ve held since the financial crisis. They are leveraging rising valuations to cover huge budget deficits before falling interest rates start to hit bank profitability again.

The process has the potential to reignite bank mergers and reshape an industry that has long lagged behind Wall Street, it also noted.

Greece’s “troubled banks of the past” have turned into some of the most desirable assets in Europe, Ilias Xirouhakis, chief executive of the HFSF, told the international financial agency. “We now see very competitive banks on a pan-European level.”

Stronger balance sheets and higher profits mean that major Greek banks were allowed to pay dividends this year for the first time since 2008. An economic recovery has helped attract foreign investors as Greece’s sovereign debt was upgraded to investment grade last year. It had lost that distinction in 2010, Bloomberg reports.

“The state’s safety net was withdrawn, but this happened at a time when the banks were already showing very strong signs of recovery,” Xirouhakis said. “It was the right time for us to leave.”