The Ministry of Finance announced on January 18 a restructuring plan for the Hellenic Postbank (TT), which includes the bank’s division into two separate entities.

According to the announcement, a transitional financial institution under the name "New Hellenic Postbank" will be established, with all the deposits and sound assets (loan portfolios and securities) of the old bank. "The newly established bank has been granted a license by the Bank of Greece and was capitalized by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, which will be its sole shareholder," says the announcement.

The new lender will have access to liquidity from the Eurosystem through the Bank of Greece and will continue its operation as normal with the purpose of allocating its shares for sale as soon as possible, it adds. Hellenic Postbank -44% owned by the Greek state- is among the smallest of Greece's major banks with about a 6% market share of deposits and about 3% of loans.

In a separate development, three Greek banks -the National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank- have regained access to European Central Bank (ECB) financing, following the successful implementation of their recapitalization programme.