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The Greek Piraeus Bank and the National Bank of Greece are negotiating the merger of their operations in Bulgaria. This might take place through the takeover of the Bulgarian Piraeus by the United Bulgarian Bank, owned by the National Bank of Greece, as reported by the business web page euro2day.gr. If a deal is struck, the Bulgarian market will be the first one in Southeast Europe where Greek banks will have finalised their restructuring process. It is worth pointin out that ten days ago Alpha bank sold its branches in Bulgaria for one euro to Postbank, owned by the Greek Eurobank.

Thus, only two Greek banks will remain on Bulgarian territory: Eurobank and the National Bank of Greece, which will have larger market shares and better chances for expansion. Experts believe that the two subsidiary banks in Bulgaria are stable and need no further recapitalization, nor does their liquidity depend on their parent banks in Greece. However, whether UBB and Postbank will remain in the future under Greek control is difficult to tell at the moment, as this will depend on recapitalization of parent banks.

No such mergers are anticipated in Romania for the time being since the Romanian economy is growing and banks are facing better prospects. Eurobank and Alpha Bank intend to sustain their operation in Cyprus, while Piraeus Bank is in talks with the Hellenic Bank in Cyprus to sell its subsidiary network.