National Bank of Greece Cautiously Bullish Over New Reforms Likely To Be Accepted By The EU

Greece’s banking stock surged after new economic reforms close to being accepted by EU creditors.

National Bank Of Greece’s (NYSE:NBG) stock price may have suffered from a massive decline, going down by as much as 5.75% since the previous day, but overall stock surged for the second day after Greece reportedly handed over new economic reform package that the European creditors deem to be close to being acceptable.

Before that, the Greek financial holding company’s stock price had a choppy trading, settling upon at $1.40m, which was up 0.10 points at an increase of 7.70% from the previous trading day.

Prime Minster, Alexis Tsipras, felt gutted when his own list of proposals fell way short of what the Greek creditors’ revised in terms of the agreement. The new set of measures was handed over the Greek government on Wednesday. Reuters reported that he had attacked the “stance” of certain creditors claiming them as strange who had rejected the budget proposals of Greece to help bridge the budget deficit gap.

The clock is starting to tick for the Greek government here, as it prepares for the upcoming meeting in Brussels with the heads of three creditor institutions, namely European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi; International Monetary Fund Managing Director, Christine Lagarde; and European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker.

However, Finance Ministers from the whole EU will gather later on to try and thrash out a deal before the expiration of Greece’s bailout package and the upcoming payment to the IMF on a lump sum basis by the end of this month, while hoping that the current meeting between Greece and the EU trio make a last ditch attempt to make their job convenient. Greece was supposed to pay them in installments before it convinced the IMF to go for a onetime payment to buy time to reach to an agreement.

Greek banks are feeling the heat from being tethered into bankruptcy, as they are concerned about the prospect of a deadlock just as much as they are slightly bullish about the two sides reaching a last minute deal at the 11th hour. It is something at which the EU seems to have developed mastery, as the stakes are so high here that no one can rule out of the particular consequences of a total meltdown in the Greek financial system. This can poison the EU as a whole, if not the whole world. The trend of depositors withdrawing cash from the banks, particularly National Bank of Greece cannot be ruled out.