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Greece‘s biggest bank, National Bank of Greece, has reported a sharply narrower loss for 2012 and even says it made a profit in the final three months of the year.

It says it lost 2.14 billion euros ($2.73 billion) as the country continued to struggle in the face of its acute debt crisis. Still that was a big improvement on the previous year when it lost 12.3 billion euros ($15.7 billion).

However, NBG also says Wednesday it made a 315 million euros ($402 million) profit in the last quarter of 2012, and hopes to remain profitable in the first three months of 2013.

CEO Alexandros Tourkolias says these are signs that conditions are getting more normal, and notes that some deposits are returning.

NBG is merging with domestic rival Eurobank.

By 24/7 Wall St.

Filed under: Market News, Banking, Global Economy, U.S. Government

I already have gone on the record that the taxation of deposits in Cyprus is nothing short of theft. Regardless of a bloated banking system that was in shambles, taking depositors’ assets under this method is wrong and it does not just target Russians and offshore depositors evading taxes. It does not even just target the wealthy. This also targets the average person on the ground. The ripples are being felt elsewhere throughout Europe (and here in America) as it poses secondary and tertiary bank and regulatory risks.

Here is how the ADRs of the European banks are being hit in New York trading.

National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG) is at a new 52-week low with a drop of more than 7% to $0.92.

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) is down 4% at $7.47, and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) is down 4% at $9.69.

The Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) is down almost 3% at $8.75.

The iShares MSCI Italy Capped Index (NYSEMKT: EWI) represents all of Italy and is down 3% at $12.20, as this nation has no government at the moment and is too big to bail out.

Even the major banking stocks are down: Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB) is down 4% at $42.80, UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) is down 3% at $15.90, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (NYSE: RBS) is down 4.3% at $8.87, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (NYSE: LYG) is down 2% at $2.97, Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) is down 3.6% at $18.53 and Credit Suisse Group A.G. (NYSE: CS) is down 3.5% at $27.42.

Before you stress too much about this, the impact is being overblown by the doomsday crowd and it is being made fun of as inconsequential by some of the financial media. Cyprus is a nation of 800,000 or so inhabitants with an economy of less than 20 billion euros. Its banking system was extremely large compared to the economy and was in shambles. The nation needs its bailout dollars.

This is just not how to fix things.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Active Trader, ADR, Banking & Finance, International Markets, Regulation Tagged: BBVA, BCS, CS, DB, EWI, IRE, LYG, NBG, RBS, SAN, UBS

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Greece's biggest bank turns a Q4 profit

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