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Tension resulted from the proposed merger of National Bank of Greece with Alpha Bank. According to Vima newspaper, Alfa Bank has rejected the offer under current conditions of the merger. The management board does not assess the proposal as friendly and equitable. National Bank of Greece has offered to merge with Alpha Bank, as eight shares of the first one would be equivalent to 11 shares of the second one. I.e. each share of Alpha Bank will be exchanged for 0.727 shares of National Bank of Greece. The proposal was made on January 17 and renewed again yesterday but with adjusted ratio of stock prices. The National Bank of Greece will have 71% share in the new financial institution and Alpha Bank - 29%. Thus the Greek state and public social security authorities will have respectively 0.9% and 12%. On Friday, both banks stopped trading their shares on the Athens Stock Exchange. The shares of the National Bank of Greece stopped at 7.64 euros and increase of 2.14%, while the shares of Alpha Bank stopped at 4.88 euros and a price increase of 6.32%.

According to estimates from the National Bank of Greece merger will lead to a cooperation in the range of 550 to 700 million euros a year. Both financial institutions have signed an agreement for trustworthiness, exclusive negotiations and refrain from alternative solutions on 3 February this year. The management boards and senior managements of the two banks have proceeded to intensive negotiations to determine the conditions of the merger. "National Bank of Greece is convinced of the strategic and financial benefits of the proposal and is confident that the board of Alpha Bank will consider it with due responsibility," says the official release of Greece's largest commercial bank.

If the deal is carried through not only extremely powerful Greek bank will be formed, but a bank hegemony of international importance on the market in Southeast Europe, assess financial analysts. It will benefit shareholders of both banks and will provide many opportunities to Greek companies and local households. Тhe final decision on the proposal depends on a number of administrative and judicial procedures, but the boards of both institutions will have the final say.

Greece has been waiting the banks consolidation for decades and this is the leading news for all local media not by coincidence. Ethnos newspaper defines it as "merger of giants" and the online edition zougla.gr emphasizes that this is "the first merger of banks." The Finance Minister George Papakonstantinou expressed his positive attitude to the proposal. He recalled that the Greek government has repeatedly encouraged banks to take steps in this direction as a secure way to survive in difficult economic times.