The Minister of National Economy, Kostis Hatzidakis, announced from the Union of Greek Banks' platform that the government intends to request from Brussels an extension of the guarantees for the Hercules project beyond €2 billion, should that become necessary.

The Commission made a point of highlighting the fact that the demand for guarantees exceeds the allocated budget in its spring forecasts. He noted the catalytic contribution of the Greek Asset Protection Plan ("Hercules") to the drastic reduction of NPLs in recent years. The government reactivated the plan in December 2023 and added an additional €2 billion in state guarantees for securitizations until the end of 2024. In addition to completing the three outstanding securitizations submitted by systemic banks before the expiry of the previous scheme in October 2022, it is expected that some less important institutions will use it to clean up their balance sheets more quickly. According to the EU's most recent NPL reduction plans, the demand for guarantees appears to be higher than the allocated amount. Going forward, banks should therefore continue to resolve their NPLs without the use of Hercules, it also said.