National Bank reports significant progress in transformation program

National Bank has made significant progress in implementing its transformation program from the first year of a four-year program with an impressive reduction of non-performing loans, a big increase in the rate of funding enterprises, strengthening its liquidity, profitability and capital adequacy, reformed its operating model, reduced costs and made a leap in e-banking offering new digital services, Pavlos Mylonas, the bank's CEO said on Tuesday.

Addressing a televised annual general shareholders' meeting, Mylonas said that NPLs fell by 5.3 billion euros, to 10 billion euros within a year and plans to bring the NPL indicator to below 15 pct in the second half of the year. National bank also disbursed 3.3 billion euros in new loans in 2019, rising to 4.4 billion euros including the first quarter of 2020, a figure representing 40 pct of market share in the Greek market. "These successes are not random nor temporary. These are the results of implementing a new operational model," Mylonas said.

National Bank's CEO underlined the ability of the bank to manage new data, referring to the pandemic crisis, adding that "the reality ahead is completely different from what we knew so far and we have to rise to the occassion." He stressed that a common goal must be an efficient management funds, adding that banks have every motive to support their viable clients during their emergency needs.