Greek Competition Authority Raids Country’s Systemic Banks

Inspectors from the Hellenic Competition Authority started to search early on Thursday for documents and electronic files at the headquraters of Greece’s four systemic lenders, according to four bank officials with knowledge of the situation.

The unexpected audit is focusing on whether the lenders, National Bank of Greece SA, Piraeus Bank SA, Eurobank Ergasias SA and Alpha Bank AE, have harmonized practices in their commissions policy, the officials said.

“We won’t allow irrational, exaggerated commissions by the lenders nor harmonized practices by systemic banks,” Economy Minister Adonis Georgiadis said on October 31. The government is monitoring the situation ...