Greece's top bank NBG on Tuesday said it had lost 1.346 billion euros ($1.78 billion) in the first nine months of the year after factoring in a write-down on its Greek government bond holdings. The bank, which employs over 12,000 people in Greece, Turkey and south-eastern Europe, said it had set aside 1.339 billion euros after tax in anticipation of state bond losses that are part of a eurozone bailout package for the country.
Without the write-down, the bank said it would have limited its losses to 7.0 million euros, compared to a 259-million-euro profit last year. "The unprecedented severity of the economic environment during the nine months under review led to increased provision charges in Greece," the bank's chief executive officer Apostolos Tamvakakis said in a statement. "NBG further fortified its balance sheet by making provisions worth 1.3 billion euros over the course (of the nine-month period)," he said.