ATHENS, July 30 (Reuters) - National Bank of Greece , the country's largest lender, said on Friday it completed an issue of covered bonds totalling 1.5 billion euros ($1.95 billion).
The bonds, secured by a cover pool of residential mortgages in euro and foreign currency originated by the bank, are part of the group's 15 billion euro covered bond programme established on June 22.
The bonds are eligible collateral with the European Central Bank for refinancing. With access to interbank wholesale funding closed because of the country's debt crisis, Greek banks have turned to the ECB to satisfy liquidity needs.
National Bank passed European stress tests last week with a 7.4 Tier 1 ratio under the most adverse scenario.
NBG said it issued second tranches for each of its first three series under the programme, tapping each with an additional 500 million euros.
The series have 5-,7-and 9-year maturities and a coupon rate based on ECB plus margins of 170, 200 and 230 basis points respectively.
All series are rated Baa3 by Moody's.
(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Erica Billingham) Keywords: NBG/ (george.georgiopoulos@reuters.com; +30210 3311813; Reuters Messaging:george.georgiopoulos.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
The bonds, secured by a cover pool of residential mortgages in euro and foreign currency originated by the bank, are part of the group's 15 billion euro covered bond programme established on June 22.
The bonds are eligible collateral with the European Central Bank for refinancing. With access to interbank wholesale funding closed because of the country's debt crisis, Greek banks have turned to the ECB to satisfy liquidity needs.
National Bank passed European stress tests last week with a 7.4 Tier 1 ratio under the most adverse scenario.
NBG said it issued second tranches for each of its first three series under the programme, tapping each with an additional 500 million euros.
The series have 5-,7-and 9-year maturities and a coupon rate based on ECB plus margins of 170, 200 and 230 basis points respectively.
All series are rated Baa3 by Moody's.
(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Erica Billingham) Keywords: NBG/ (george.georgiopoulos@reuters.com; +30210 3311813; Reuters Messaging:george.georgiopoulos.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.