Eurozone bailout funds released to ailing Greek bank

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Athens • Europe's eurozone bailout institution has approved a $2.88 billion disbursement to recapitalize Greece's ailing Piraeus Bank.

The amount is part of $10.7 billion set aside for Greek banks under the country's third international bailout, which was agreed on this year.

The fund, called European Stability Mechanism, said Tuesday that Piraeus had covered about $3.7 billion of a $5.24 billion shortfall identified during recent stress tests on Greek banks, and that the stability mechanism would provide the remaining amount.

ESM head Klaus Regling said Greece had "cleared an important hurdle by securing sufficient interest for the recapitalization among private investors."

The ESM said the release of the remaining $7.52 billion for the banks "will be decided on a case by case basis."