S&P revised Bank of Cyprus’s outlook to positive from stable

Macro/Political:

On December 23^rd Greece will auction 26 Weeks T-Bills with maturity June 26, 2026. The amount to be auctioned is EUR 400mn.
Source: PDMA
According to Naftemporiki, the PDMA is expected to announce its 2026 funding plan at the beginning of next week. The plan is projected to show that total bond issuance will amount to EUR 8bn. It is also expected to include early debt repayments aimed at reducing the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio. Funding is expected to be front-loaded, with more issuance taking place at the beginning of the year, including possibly the issuance of a 10-year bond even in January. Furthermore, the plan is expected to include ten taps of existing bonds, as well as new issuance of Treasury bills.
Source: Naftemporiki Print Edition (22 December, pg. 7)
The Overall Turnover Index in Industry (both Domestic and Non-Domestic Market) in October 2025 recorded an increase of 0.3% (y-o-y) while it decreased by 2.4% (m-o-m).
Source: ELSTAT

Markets:

Aegean announced that it proceeded with a bond buyback at an average price of 100%, with a total transaction value of EUR 66,630.50 on 15/12/2025-16/12/2025. Following the aforementioned bond buyback, the company holds 807 bond securities, representing 0.408% of the total issued common bond loan.
Source: ATHEX

Macro/Political:

President Nikos Christodoulides will be in Jerusalem today, within the framework of the 10th trilateral summit, to meet the leaders of Greece and Israel. Christodoulides stated that the meeting will enhance bilateral relations, particularly in the areas of energy, defence, innovation, and tourism. Furthermore, he noted that the aim of the summit is to create conditions of security and cooperation in the broader Middle East region.
Source: StockWatch

Markets:

S&P revised Bank of Cyprus’s outlook to positive from stable and affirmed its BBB- long- and short-term issuer credit ratings. The outlook revision primarily reflects the agency’s view that economic risk for banks operating in Cyprus is easing. The private-sector deleveraging continues to converge toward the EU average. Credit rating agency also, highlights that Cypriot banks have cleaned up a large portion of their legacy NPLs. Finally, S&P expects Bank of Cyprus’s profitability to remain resilient in a less supportive interest rate environment, as the bank has successfully reduced its sensitivity to interest rate changes. A 100-basis-point reduction in rates is now expected to translate into a 10% negative impact on NIM, compared with 25% at the end of 2022.
Source: S&P
Alpha Bank announced that it has reached an agreement on the key commercial and legal terms for a strategic combination of insurance activities in Cyprus, between Universal Life and Altius Insurance which is expected to result in the creation of one of top three insurance groups in Cyprus across both the Life and Non- Life sectors, with leadership position in the Accident & Health segment.
Source: ATHEX