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The management of the National Bank of Greece has officially launched the procedures for the sale of a minority stake of shares of its Turkish subsidiary Finansbank.

According to the announcement of the Greek group, the Management Board of the Turkish bank has submitted a draft communiqué to the Capital Markets Board of Turkey as well as all other necessary documents to the competent Turkish authorities in order to proceed to increase its capital. The bank intends to revoke the right of preference and to issue new shares through a public offering and private placement.

According to sources, this procedure will involve only part of the 40% of Finansbank share capital that the management of the National Bank of Greece has committed to sell by the end of 2015.

It is expected that a new deal will be concluded in the coming months that will limit the participation of the Greek bank in Finansbank to 60%.

The transfer of the shares is part of the plan for the restructuring of the National Bank of Greece, which was approved by the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission (DG Comp).

In this way, the bank will improve the performance of its capital adequacy shortly before the European Central Bank announces the results of the stress tests of the Greek banks this Sunday.

Commenting on the expected results, Chief Executive Officer of the National Bank of Greece Alexandros Tourkolias said on Tuesday, "We sleep peacefully."

Meanwhile, three of the four systemic Greek banks, the National Bank of Greece, Eurobank and Alpha Bank, will hold extraordinary general meetings in November. The shareholders will need to vote on the inclusion of the banks in the framework that will ensure an equity "bonus" as a result of an amendment voted by the Parliament, which provides that the deferred taxes will transform into a tax asset.