The group of Greek Cooperative Banks, Panellinia Bank, and Systemic Risk Management, a provider of financial risk management systems, have started an important cooperation regarding the supply and full maintenance by the latter of Credit Risk management systems and Basel II compliance.

The cooperation aims at the banking group's full compliance with the requirements of the new Capital Accord (Basel II). In the meanwhile, the group of cooperative banks, understanding the internal benefits that will arise for each bank, has decided not to limit its efforts to the implementation of the standardized approach, but has started working on the implementation of more advanced methods and international best practices in risk management.

SYSTEMIC Risk Management, taking full advantage of the tools provided by its systems RV Credit© ??? RV Rating©, will proceed to the calculation of internal risk ratings and statistically validate default probabilities of the Cooperative Banks' obligors, the evaluation of potential losses in the event of defaults, and the calculation of statistical expected and unexpected losses. Furthermore, it will simulate negative macroeconomic conditions in Greece and the effects that these could have on the lending portfolio and the results of the Cooperative Banks.

This cooperation, besides improving risk management, will allow to the Cooperative Banks to price more accurately their credit exposures taking under account the risks that they are undertaking. This will allow to improve the return on the group's resources, as well as to establish an optimized corporate strategy.

In the meanwhile, SYSTEMIC has undertaken a consulting role by transferring to the cooperative banks its know how from the international banking sector, its active participation and specialization in the area of risk management systems since 1999, its constant presence at major conferences that take place in several countries and its cooperation with highly respected academics and banks in many countries.

The clients of Systemic-RM include, among others, National Bank of Greece group of companies, HSBC Group, PIRAEUS Bank, Marfin Group, First Business Bank and Omega Bank.