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It appears that the National Bank of Greece is preparing for the lion's jump when it comes to the restructuring of the financial market in the country since the executive director of the institution Apostolos Tamvakakis said bluntly: "Mergers are the only way to reorganize the financial system." After the refusal of Alpha Bank for a friendly merger with National Bank of Greece at the beginning of this year, rumors about the restructuring of the Greek banking market stopped again, but the problems in the macroeconomic environment increased. The hardships of the socialist government and deviations in implementation of the objectives of the Memorandum of financial assistance have fueled rumors of a debt restructuring in Greece as the only possibility for a breath of fresh air in the repayment of the coming obligations of the country.

In this regard, many international economic analysts estimate that the foreign debt will not only be restructured, but would suffer significant cuts of more than 50 percent of its current value, which at the end of 2011 is expected to reach 160% of the GDP. David Oakli said before Financial Times that capital markets are preparing for a cut of Greek government bonds amounting to at least 55%. Even if such a plan is implemented, however, the external debt of Greece will remain much higher than the rate within the eurozone according to the Maastricht Treaty, which does not really solve the problem of the Mediterraneans.

At the same time debt restructuring does not appeal to the Greek banks which are the main holders of the toxic Greek government bonds. Assuming that 55% of the value of the put into circulation Greek bonds will be cut, the amount of these cuts could reach 262 billion euros, reported Imerisia. "The restructuring of debt or its haircut is no alternative, because the consequences would be disastrous for the country and will bring us back decades ago," says concerned the executive director of the National Bank of Greece. Sam as his are also the statements of the Greek Finance Minister George Papakonstantinou, who repeats every day that a scenario for a change in the terms and amount of repayment of foreign debt does not exist. The problem is that they no longer believe him.

The current government of PASOK quickly, for about 18 months created a not very good name for itself. First they took over the power using election slogans "There is money", then they "discovered" that Greece is a about to face a bankruptcy and there is no money. Then followed a game of hide and seek between December 2009 and April 2010. Then for months the government ensured us that there is no need for help and it will deal on its own with the economic crisis. It publicly denied the possibility of any intervention by the International Monetary Fund until the late April of last year came. Then the Prime Minister George Papadreou announced from the sunny island of Kastelorizo, that Greece can no longer be credited by the world markets, and its only choice is the assistance of the IMF and the eurozone, which did lent the money, but was especially reluctant. Then followed promises that there will be no drastic measures and the government will act quickly and effectively, but none of this was completely true.

For this reason, it seems that today’s promises of Papaconstantinou that Greece will not resort to debt restructuring, can not convince anyone anymore. In any case, financial experts are adamant that the implementation of the recovery program should continue to be applied correctly and at a faster pace. "What we need to do is to concentrate all our efforts on achieving national targets for fiscal consolidation and reform the local economy" was explicit Apostolos Tamvakakis. Even the Greek economist with long experience in the International Monetary Fund Miranda Ksafa stressed in the middle of last year that if there was a possibility for the external debt of Greece to disappear in some magical way, the deficit problem remains, which makes the need for immediate reforms urgent.