Greek banks more cautious due to crisis pressure

TIRANA, March 11 – An adverse climate and lower profitability have caused the region’s banks to fall and be more careful in lending.
Greece’s commercial banks, faced with a relatively small and increasingly mature domestic market, have been expanding rapidly in southeastern Europe for the past decade, acquiring subsidiaries or established branch networks throughout the Balkans, Ukraine and Turkey.
They have faced stiff competition from much larger European banks but have managed to carve out solid market shares of 3% to 10% in deposits and 5% to 15% in loans.
The big four–National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, Eurobank EFG and Piraeus–are roughly estimated to have combined market shares of 40% in Macedonia, 35% in Albania, 30% in Bulgaria and 20% in Romania.
Regional lending grew at rates double or triple those for deposits; as banks demonstrated such strong profit growth, they could afford to finance it out of group resources. Greek banks had little exposure to exotic products, and their total exposure to those that went bad during the recent U.S. financial meltdown was as low as 20 million Euros, according to the Bank of Greece.