French Proposal May Form Basis for Greek Bailout, Dallara Says
By Ercan Ersoy - Jun 28, 2011 5:13 PM GMT+0200 Tue Jun 28 15:13:52 GMT 2011
A French proposal for a rollover of Greek bonds contains “the ingredients” to form the basis of a new bailout package for
Greece, said
Charles Dallara, managing director of the
Institute of International Finance.
“I don’t think we should be focusing on one single proposal for Greece,” Dallara said at a conference in Istanbul today. “But the ingredients of the French model are highly likely what will come out of this.” He also said the Greek crisis won’t be resolved without debt buybacks.
Under the French proposal, half the Greek debt held by banks and insurers maturing in the next three years would be swapped for new 30-year Greek bonds. The redemptions from another 20 percent would be invested in a special purpose vehicle that would serve as collateral for the banks, two people familiar with the plan said.
Dallara participated in talks yesterday in Rome with financial companies on options for the new Greek rescue package. Representatives from the
euro zone and the
European Central Bank also attended.
The IIF is a Washington-based lobby group representing more than 400 of the world’s biggest financial- services companies.
Guarantee Fund
The French plan, which includes a guarantee fund as an incentive for banks to take part, has been compared to the Brady Bond plan, named after former U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady, that was used in 1989 to help resolve
Latin America’s debt crisis. In that case, bondholders who swapped their debt for longer-maturity bonds were offered a repayment guarantee. To back up that guarantee, the Latin American governments bought U.S. Treasury bonds that were held in escrow.
Greece’s rescue plan needs “a broad base of participants” from political parties and financial-services companies, said Dallara, a former U.S. Treasury official. The Greek economic problems are “extraordinarily serious,” he said. “Recovery will definitely take time.”
Dallara said he was confident Greek lawmakers will pass “in the next few days” the legislation required for the next tranche of funding. The Greek parliament is debating a package of budget cuts and asset sales that is needed before the nation can tap a fifth loan payment from last year’s 110 billion-euro ($158 billion) bailout.
(Bloomberg)