The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Bank, Professor Gikas Hardouvelis, while speaking at the annual GET INVOLVED sustainability conference.
“The future for banks is digital,” he emphasized, noting that banking transactions are now largely conducted electronically and that users of banking services are becoming increasingly familiar with them.
Digital money is just around the corner, and the digitization of assets has already begun. Today, the market capitalization of private stablecoins stands at $300 billion globally, while that of tokenized assets is at $30 billion and is growing rapidly.
However, Mr. Hardouvelis also highlighted the risks posed by this development, noting that they require special attention, and emphasized: “Advanced artificial intelligence (such as Anthropic’s Mythos program) raises serious cybersecurity issues. There is a need for a strict regulatory framework, and Europe is preparing with the DORA (Digital Operations Resilience Act) and RDARR (Risk Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting) regulations.”
Later in his speech, Mr. Hardouvelis emphasized that the Greek banking sector has turned a new page, with strong capital adequacy, high levels of liquidity, and low non-performing loan ratios. It provides sufficient credit to businesses and households, with an average growth rate over the past five years far exceeding that of the rest of Europe, thereby supporting the economy.
In Europe, risks are mainly found outside the banking sector, where non-bank financial institutions are highly leveraged without being subject to a strict regulatory framework like banks.
Mr. Hardouvelis’s speech also focused on the limited stagflationary effects of rising energy prices on the domestic and European economies in 2026 and 2027. In Greece, GDP growth is expected to decline from 2.2% in 2025 to 1.8% in 2026 and 2.1% in 2027. At the same time, average inflation is estimated to rise from 2.5% in 2025 to 4.0% in 2026 and 2.4% in 2027.
Similarly, the market reaction to the Gulf War has been fairly muted, particularly compared to the corresponding reactions at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Bond markets are pricing in higher interest rates and inflation in the short term, but are not discounting dramatic long-term changes. Stock markets are also experiencing high volatility, which, given the uncertainty surrounding the war, is normal at this time.
“Fiscal performance and, in particular, the trend of reducing public debt as a percentage of GDP in recent years give the Greek economy greater leeway and relatively more fiscal space to address the consequences of a potential adverse development of the crisis,” concluded Mr. Hardouvelis.