The deal struck between National Bank of Greece to buy Turkey's Finansbank is likely to be the first in a line of cross-border acquisitions. Few analysts doubt that the acquisition of a Turkish bank by National Bank of Greece (NBG), the country's biggest financial group, will herald the beginning of a new era for Greek banking. In a two-horse contest, NBG trumped Citigroup with a bid of ?2.3bn for 47% of Finansbank, a mid-sized private bank, and became the first Greek bank to enter the Turkish market.
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