OREANDA-NEWS. December 22, 2015. The Bank of Greece has decided to put the small cooperative bank (with less than 0.1% market share in Greece) into resolution because it had a capital shortfall and did not succeed in raising new capital from private investors. Under the resolution plan, the existing entity will be put into liquidation, including all its activities except deposits.

All deposits of Cooperative Bank of Peloponnese will be transferred to National Bank of Greece (NBG), which acquired at market value the deposits in a bidding process. Depositors therefore remain fully protected. The transfer of the deposits will be financed by the Greek Resolution Fund. The Commission has found that the support provided by the Greek Resolution Fund does not constitute aid because the deposits of Cooperative Bank of Peloponnese are transferred at market value and the rest of the bank is liquidated without any State aid.

The Commission also observed that the acquisition of the deposits reinforces the liquidity position of NBG, and hence is not contrary to the amended restructuring plan of National Bank of Greece approved on 4 December 2015. The non-confidential version of the decision will be published in the State aid register on the competition website under the case number SA.43886 once eventual confidentiality issues have been resolved.