Greece is open to more cross -border banking agreements, whether they come from foreign investors in its financial sector, or from local banks expanding abroad, according to Bank of Greece Governor Yiannis Stournaras.

“We are following a very pro -European attitude, which helps to implement the banking union and the capital markets union,” G. Stournaras said in an interview he gave on Saturday on the sidelines of the informal meeting of the European Union Ministers in Copenhagen.

“We are in favor of cross -border transactions and I hope this will prevail elsewhere,” he said.

As Bloomberg points out, although politics across Europe are calling for cross -border banking unification in Epirus, such moves are welcomed by all governments. Germany, for example, opposed Unicredit Spa’s acquisition of Commerzbank AG, while Unicredit withdrew its contribution to Italian competitor Banco BPM Spa, as it failed to secure the green light of the government.

On the contrary, the Greek government and the Bank of Greece warmly welcomed the market of 26% of Alpha Bank’s shares from Unicredit and its plan to increase the participation rate to 29.9%.

The government, the Bank of Greece, the banks and the public have adopted “a very, very pro -European approach”, according to the BoG Governor.

Indeed, as Bloomberg notes, Greek banks seek to conclude agreements abroad after years of restructuring. Eurobank acquired the Cypriot Hellenic Bank, while Alpha Bank is in the process of acquiring the Cypriot Astrobank. Crediabank signed an agreement with HSBC Continental Europe to acquire 70.03% of its HSBC Bank Malta.

“The mutual benefit is great if we allow cross -border transactions and of course if we complete the Association of Banks and Capital Markets. The benefit is great, “Yiannis Stournaras said.

Greece, according to Bloomberg, is also at the forefront of a pan -European effort to return banks to individuals – in just over a year, withdrew from the share capital of three major banks and assigned much of its participation to a fourth. Of course, it still maintains participation rates in the National Bank and Crediabank, the former Attica Bank.

Concerning the country’s economy, Bloomberg notes that it is recovering from the debt crisis of the last decade, has recovered the investment level and has fully repaid the rescue loans it has received from the International Monetary Fund.

According to Yiannis Stournaras, the increase in GDP of Greece during the period 2025-2027 will be slightly over 2% on average, about twice as much as the European average.

As for the budgetary relief measures recently announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the BoG commander estimates that “they will have a positive impact on the country’s economy”.