Greece's Alpha Bank and Eurobank 'set to merge'

                                   Qatar supports Greek bank merger

Greece's second and third biggest banks are expected to announce their merger on Monday.

     Shares in both banks were suspended on the Athens stock exchange pending an announcement.
Banking sources said that the two would join up to help them cope with the country's sovereign debt crisis and avoid having to tap into the country's liquidity support mechanism.
Shares in Greek banks have fallen by more than 50% this year.
Qatar Investment Authority, which is already an Alpha shareholder, is likely to take a bigger stake in the new bank.
QIA holds 5% of Alpha and is expected to take 15% of the merged entity.
It has been reported that the new bank will be called Alpha Eurobank and will be the biggest bank in southeastern Europe, with assets of 150bn euros ($218bn; £133bn), 80bn euros in deposits and 2,000 branches.
Shares in other Greek banks rallied in early trading, having fallen sharply last week, although Alpha and Eurobank were suspended.
"The Athens stock exchange... has decided to suspend trading in their shares until investors are informed about the results of [the two banks' ongoing] board meetings and the terms of the deal," the bourse said in a statement.
An announcement is expected at about midday BST.
Eurobank has recently sold its Polish subsidiary and promised to raise its capital further after failing EU-wide bank stress tests.
As major debtors of the Greek government, Greek banks have fared particularly badly in the sovereign debt crisis, surviving only with the assistance of the European Central Bank.
The second bail-out for Greece will involve its banks having to accept lower interest payments on their holdings of Greek government bonds, albeit over a longer period.
Alpha Bank rejected a merger offer from the country's biggest lender, National Bank, in February.
The merger between Eurobank and Alpha Bank would be rare good news for the Greek government, which has been calling on the country's banks to pool their resources.
The government goes into key talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund this week about the second bail-out, having just increased its forecast for the contraction of its economy this year from 3.5% to 4.5%.

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