Small Greek lender Attica Bank lost 7.1 million euros ($9.9 million) last year, hurt by higher bad debt provisions and a one-off tax, the bank said said on Wednesday. A squeeze in deposit spreads, weaker loan volumes and higher provisions made it tougher for Greek banks to make money last year. The country's debt crisis also hurt their bond portfolios. Attica Bank had profit of 5.6 million in 2009. "Despite the deepening recession last year, the bank kept its impaired loans ratio below the Greek banking system's average. Capital adequacy ratios remained high, proving its resilience," Attica's Chairman Yannis Gamvrilis said in a statement. Attica is 43 percent owned by engineers pension fund TSMEDE. Its other big shareholders are Hellenic Post Savings (TT) with a 22 percent stake and the Loans & Consignments Fund (L&C) with 19 percent. Provisions rose 22.3 percent last year to 42.5 million euros, with loans in arrears more than 180 days increasing to 8.5 percent of Attica's loan book from 5.96 percent in 2009. The bank said its core Tier 1 ratio was 16.4 percent at the end of 2010.Deposits shrank 3.27 percent to 3.32 billion euros while net interest income grew 7.6 percent to 115 million. Attica's management has said it wants to grow the bank organically or through acquisitions and raise its market share in loans and deposits to above 3 percent from about 2 percent. Shareholders have approved management's plan to buy back 100.2 million euros worth of preferred shares the bank sold the government two years ago under a liquidity support scheme.
by George Georgiopoulos
source: Reuters
