Greek banks to get capital boost from tax credit rules

摘要

Greece appears set to join Italy, Spain and Portugal as the latest country to permit its banks to convert deferred tax assets into capital, in a controversial move that comes just six weeks ahead of eurozone-wide stress tests that are expected to highlight billion-euro shortfalls across the currency bloc. DTAs are accrued by banks when they make a loss, and can be used to offset future tax bills once the firm returns to profit. Traditionally they have not been counted towards capital, since their use depends on a firm returning to profitability, but a number of countries have recently changed accounting rules to allow this.