Greek banks face down the crisis

ATHENS AIRPORT IS brimful with tired and irate tourists, desperate to leave Greece. It is a beautiful autumn evening but a UK package travel airline has just gone bust, stranding thousands of passengers.

Many Greeks would be glad to see them gone, preferring Russian or Chinese tourists, who spend more.

But unfortunately this is a story repeated throughout the Hellenic economy. Greece has benefited immensely from joining the European Union long before other countries in southeastern Europe. But now mistakes in the west are complicating Greek ambition in the east.

"The general focus on increasing and strengthening our presence in markets abroad has not changed," Nicholas Nanopoulos, chief executive of Eurobank EFG, the second-biggest bank in Greece by assets, tells Euromoney. The stances of the other big Greek banks are similar.

However, Greek banks’ rapidly growing operations in central and eastern Europe are still only a few years old. Their...