The Minister of National Defence Mr. Panos Panagiotopoulos had today a working meeting at the Ministry of National Defence with the presiding committee of the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) and, more specifically, Mr. Giorgos Zanias, Chairman of the Association’s Board of Directors and Chairman of the National Bank of Greece, Mr. Nikolaos Nanopoulos, Vice Chairman A’ and Chief Executive Officer of Eurobank-Ergasias bank, Mr. Demetrios Mantzounis, Vice Chairman B’ and Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Bank, Mr. Stavros Lekkakos, Vice Chairman C’ and Chief Executive Officer of Piraeus and Mr. Christos Gkortsos, HBA Secretary General.
The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Ministers of National Defence Mr. Panaghiotis Karambelas and Mr. Dimitris Elefsiniotis, the Chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff, Vice Admiral Kosmas Christidis, Chief of the Hellenic Air Force Lieutenant General (AF) Antonios Tsantirakis, the the Chief of the Hellenic Army Lieutenant General Konstantinos Gkinis, the Deputy Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff Vice Admiral Evaggelos Apostolakis, the Special Secretary of the Ministry of National Defence Mr. Antonis Oikonomou, as well as other agents of the Ministry.
The meeting aimed at taking initiative as far as the Banks-members of the Association are concerned, so as to take up solutions seeking to alleviate the burden of loan repayment by military and civilian personnel of the Armed Forces.
After the completion of the meeting, Mr. Panagiotopoulos and Mr. Zanias made the following statements:
P. PANAGIOTOPOULOS: I would like to thank the Board of the Hellenic Bank Association for responding to the initiative I took as Minister of National Defence, in order for all of us to reflect all together and speculate on finding ways to alleviate the men and women serving in the Armed Forces – military and civilian personnel – who have taken consumer and housing credits by the banks.
We all know that they are a part of the Hellenic people who experience many difficulties that have been created due to the financial crisis; our goal is to lean over their problems and find specific solutions.
Therefore, we decided to immediately create a work group that will promptly particularise ways to alleviate these people. We will soon be able to explain more as far as these particular measures are concerned.
I would like to thank Mr. Zanias, Chairman of the National Bank of Greece and Chairman of the Association’s Board of Directors, as well as all the members of the Board, who have done us the honour of coming today at the Ministry of National Defence, so as to collaborate to this end. I believe that we will be able to be more specific in the following days, so that hundreds of families will be alleviated of the difficulties facing in their everyday life.
All the best for you, Happy New Year and the best of strength to you all.
G. ZANIAS: Thank you Minister. I would like to say that it is a pleasure and an honour for us, the Hellenic Bank Association, to be here at the Ministry of National Defence and meet with the political and military leadership.
The people at the Ministry of National Defence, our military people, suffer them too from the current crisis, just like the rest of the Hellenic people.
We came here to see what could be done so as to alleviate them as far as their obligations to the banks are concerned.
To this end, we decided to make a work group that will examine the problems in the Armed Forces that have many particularities and try to conclude to a solution and help as much as possible.
Naturally, efforts have been made and special agreements have been concluded with the Government to making optimum settlements, in order to mitigate the implications of this crisis, as much as possible.
Besides this work group, we will be communicating with the leadership of the Ministry of National Defence, so as to face any urgent situation that might arise.
I would like to thank the Minister for the invitation. It is a great pleasure for us trying to assist whenever possible.
