“The successful result of Piraeus Bank on the stress test performed by the European Central Bank on the 130 most significant banks in Europe is a testament of the strength and the robustness of Piraeus Bank. According to both the “baseline” and the “adverse” scenarios of the stress tests, which took into consideration the Euro 1.75 billion capital increase of April 2014, the bank has capital adequacy ratios well above the required levels. Our capital ratios would be further enhanced by the conversion of deferred tax assets to deferred tax credit: under this assumption in, CET1 ratio shoots up to 11.8% and 12.4% under the baseline scenario for static and dynamic balances respectively, placing Piraeus at the top tier of the European banks”, commented Yannis Kyriakopoulos, Head of International Banking of Piraeus Bank Group and Head of the Supervisory Board of Piraeus Bank in Ukraine, on the announcement of the stress test results of the ECB last week.

“Piraeus Bank was among the 130 most significant European credit institutions which were reviewed by the ECB, just before it (the ECB) starts its direct supervision, in November 2014, under the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The results confirmed Piraeus’ compliance with the most exigent standards”, commented Mr. Nikolas Zenzefilis, JSC PIRAEUS BANK ICB Board member and responsible for the Treasury and Finance Department.

The Comprehensive Assessment was conducted by the European Central Bank (“ECB”) in cooperation with the European Banking Authority (“EBA”) and the Central Bank of Greece, as announced by the bank on October 26.

The exercise was conducted by reference to a balance sheet as of 31 December 2013 (“Static Balance Sheet”), and Piraeus' restructuring plan (“Dynamic Balance Sheet”). Both balance sheets were stressed under a “baseline” and “adverse” scenario.

In the Dynamic Balance Sheet approach, Piraeus Bank posted a Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio (“CET1 ratio”) of 11.4% under the “baseline” scenario and 6.7% under the “adverse” scenario, against minimum requirements of 8.0% and 5.5% respectively.

The Static Balance Sheet approach, combined with the impact of the Euro 1.75 billion capital increase that took place in April 2014 and the Euro 750 million repayment of the State preference shares in May 2014, leads to a CET1 ratio of the bank of 10.7% and 6.1% in the “baseline” and “adverse” scenarios respectively. These ratios do not take into account the benefit of the potential conversion of deferred tax assets to deferred tax credit (L.4302/2014 as amended on 16 October 2014).

(*) includes the €1.75 bn capital increase that took place in April 2014 and the repayment of the €750 mn State preference shares in May 2014

If the benefit of the converted DTA were to be included in the calculation, the CET1 ratio under the Static Balance Sheet approach would increase to 11.8% in the “baseline” scenario and to 7.7% in the “adverse” scenario, providing Piraeus Bank with an additional capital buffer above the requisite thresholds of 8.0% and 5.5% for the “baseline” and the “adverse” scenarios, respectively.

(*) includes the €1.75 billion capital increase that took place in April 2014 and the repayment of the €750 million State preference shares in May 2014