Non-systemic banks stand out in net lending growth

Bank credit growth to the private sector slowed last year, Bank of Greece (BoG) governor Yannis Stournaras said in his recent address to the general meeting.

The governor noted that the pace of expansion remains above the eurozone average, adding that the slowdown was mainly driven by weaker lending growth to companies and self-employed professionals. A closer reading of the data highlights an important trend: the four systemic banks focused their activity on loans co-financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Excluding this segment, they accounted for roughly half of net credit expansion, with the remainder driven by cooperative banks and, in particular, the two non-systemic lenders, CrediaBank and Optima Bank.

New lending

According to 2025 results, Eurobank granted new loans of 5.3 billion euros, National Bank granted loans of 3.5 billion, Piraeus Bank 3.9 billion euros, and Alpha Bank 3.5 billion. In total, the four systemic banks disbursed 16.2 billion in new credit, significantly exceeding their initial target of 13 billion.

Among non-systemic lenders, CrediaBank reported 3.4 billion in new disbursements and Optima Bank 3.7 billion, bringing the combined total to 7.1 billion. Cooperative banks are estimated to have granted around 1 billion in lending. Overall, new loans exceeded 24 billion euros, approaching 24.5 billion euros. Systemic banks accounted for roughly two-thirds of new lending, while the two non-systemic banks represented about 30%.

However, these figures do not reflect net credit expansion, which captures the actual increase in bank financing after repayments, refinancing and loan maturities.

Net credit expansion

According to monthly data from the European Central Bank, net new lending stood at 9.18 billion euros in 2025. This figure is at the upper end of market estimates (8.5–9.5 billion) and may be slightly inflated due to technical factors, including seasonal adjustments in some components.

On this basis, net credit expansion from the four systemic banks was just above 5.5 billion euros. Roughly half of this came from Eurobank, with the remaining share split among the other three lenders, led by Piraeus Bank and followed by Alpha Bank.

CrediaBank reported net credit expansion of 1.1 billion euros, while Optima Bank recorded 1.5 billion euros. Cooperative banks contributed a significantly smaller amount, estimated at 200–400 million euros.

RRF-related lending

In housing credit, for the first time in 16 years, net lending turned positive, although this was largely driven by the program “My Home II”, which contributed 830 million euros. Consumer credit made only a marginal contribution to overall net expansion.