Piraeus preserves business in Q4

Piraeus Bank, the domestic subsidiary of one of the biggest Greek financial groups, in the fourth quarter of 2009 maintained almost unchanged its loan and deposit portfolios, as well as its territorial network. The loan volume in December stood at 1.81bn euros, similar with the September level, according to the data Piraeus presented in Athens. Compared with the end of 2008, the volume is 7% lower, though. Out of the total loans, 59% went to the corporate sector, 10% are home equity loans and 24% are consumer loans. Portfolio quality deteriorated further, with the weight of bad loans climbing to 5.8% of the total in December, namely 105m euros, compared with 4.9% in September and 2.4% the previous December. Bad loan provisioning rose to 86% from 78% in September. Deposits also stagnated in the fourth quarter, at 1.1bn euros. The level is 21% above that of December 2008. The territorial network maintained at 186 branches and the number of employees at 1,972. Domestically, Piraeus Group did not report any data on its 2009 financial results and the bank's representatives did not provide additional explanations about business trends.