This seems to be a nightmare not only for Athens bankers, but for the Greek Government as a whole, which together with the President of the Bank of Greece Georgios Provopulos presses the bankers in the summer to reach an understand what, with whom and how and from September to proceed to mergers. Of course, it is not about the merger of two banks which are in debt from which magically to be born a new stable one. Wonders in the financial world where everything is a matter of simple arithmetic do not work out. But the government of Papandreou hopes that at least one of the schemes that will remain after the consolidation of the banking sector will work and will be able to escape the hands of the Fund for credit stability.
    Certainly the merger of the banks will change the whole nature of the Greek financial market and it will differ radically from what we know now. With respect to mergers and consolidations the first to follow the banks are the insurance companies operating in Greece and which just like the banks suffer from liquidity problems. The private insurance market is facing dramatic changes which will occur in the second half of 2010 and especially in 2011. Experts say that the management of major international insurance companies like AXA, Allianz and Victoria and of the two national ones with state interests – the National insurance company, owned by National Bank of Greece and the Agricultural Insurance Company, owned by the Agricultural Bank are now looking for "partners" on the market.
    About the Greek private insurers, however, will tell you in our next story.