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Representatives of Piraeus Bank and Alpha Bank are "hunting" in Europe and the United States for the capital required for the increase of the share capital of the financial and credit institutions.

The first signs are very encouraging since, according to sources, foreign funds have shown keen interest in participating in the capital increase.

At the same time, however, they are interested in issues such as the future of banks, the prospects for the Greek economy, the non-performing loans and political risks and insist on obtaining the relevant replies.

As for the prospects for the Greek economy, the foreigners are first awaiting the initial assessment of Standard & Poor’s, which will probably be completed next Friday. It will set the tone for the foreign rating agencies and, after some clarifications, will predetermine the assessments of the other two agencies, namely Moody's and Fitch.

According to recent data, it is expected that Standard & Poor’s will revise its assessment of the Greek economy from neutral to positive and a possible increase in the assessment by one point would be a pleasant and encouraging surprise.

Later, on 4 April, Moody's will assess Greece's credit rating as well.

The assessment of Fitch will follow on 23 May and it will probably improve Greece’s credit rating on the eve of the European elections, assuming that it wants to help the government a little.

Piraeus Bank aims to find 1.75 billion euro to repay preferred shares of 750 million euro or 757 million euro in the worst-case scenario.

According to reliable sources, five strong hedge funds (Baupost Group, York Capital Management, Wellington Capital Management, Stratford Capital and Paulson Co) have expressed interest in the capital increase, requesting even larger amounts than expected.

The case of Piraeus Bank is the best confirmation of the interest of foreigners in the developments in the financial system of Greece. Both underwriters of bonds and powerful foreign companies such as Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, are strengthening the prevailing assessment of the market. Furthermore, the universal secret of the market is the statement made on Friday afternoon that Piraeus Bank "has provided these 1.7-1.8 billion euro", with all the ensuing consequences.

Alpha Bank will attract 1.2 billion euro with which it will repay preferred shares of 940 million euro and will cover the adverse scenario of the stress test to the amount of 560 million euro.

A solution in the case of Eurobank had been found as well, following the agreement reached by the government and the Troika on Saturday. Furthermore, the parliament will soon take action on the bill that will pave the way for increasing its share capital by approximately 3 billion euro.

In the case of Attica Bank, the main regulator probably is the Engineers and Public Contractors Pension Fund (TSMEDE), which already participates in the share capital of the bank with 51%. In practice, the Fund will proceed to reduce its percentage to 33%-35% through selling shares to a strategic investor, or it will be forced to proceed to do so, as the bank will find it difficult to overcome the problems without a strategic investor. Under this option, the strategic investor could acquire 33% of Attica Bank by obtaining a percentage from both the Engineers and Public Contractors Pension Fund and the market, and the bank management is already examining these options and opportunities.