Europe’s banks are slowly fessing up to the size of their Greek exposure.
First up have been the French.
Societe Generale revealed a €3bn exposure on Wednesday, largely down to its 54 per cent stake in Greek bank Geniki.
Before that Credit Agricole, which operates a Greek affiliate, Emporiki, declared its exposure to the Hellenic Republic at €800m.
On Thursday, meanwhile, the eurozone’s second largest bank by market capitalisation, BNP Paribas, revealed an exposure of €5bn.
As Reuters reported:
BNP added that it had €3bn in corporate commitments in Greece, mainly with international groups involved in maritime defence and with risks that had “minimal correlation” to Greece’s economy
Although sizable, France’s financial institutions are unlikely to have the largest single-entity exposure to Greece within the eurozone. It is, for example, widely understood that German institutions such as Hypo Real Estate currently hold that honour.
According to the Wall Street Journal:
Among banks which would face heavy write-downs if Greece defaults are Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, which owns about €7.9 billion in Greek government bonds, and another €2 billion in exposure to other Greek borrowers. Commerzbank AG holds €3.1 billion in Greek government bonds, the bank said.
According to BIS data — which is compiled in dollar terms– the collective exposure of French banks is some $80bn, while the collective exposure of German institutions is $45bn.
The same data implies that UK banks, which are yet to individually breakdown their exposure to Greece, have an exposure of about $15bn.
Related links:
Who’s exposed to Greece? (III) - FT Alphaville
Who’s exposed to Greece? (II) - FT Alphaville
Who’s exposed to Greece? - FT Alphaville
So what happened to Switzerland’s Greek bonds? – FT Alphaville