ATHENS, May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thomas Murray, one of the leading companies in the field of the provision of ratings in depositories worldwide, published a report dated 20/5/2008 upgrading the risk assessment for HELEX.
The report reflects a series of changes that took place during the course of previous year in HELEX, the clearing, settlement and registry operator of the Greek market, having a positive effect on its assessment and eventually leading to the upgrade.
In particular, the following changes took place: - Overall Risk: Upgrade from A to A+ - Asset Commitment Risk: Upgrade from A+ to AA- - Liquidity Risk: Upgrade from A to AA- - Counterparty Risk: Upgrade from A to A+ Other grading rates were unchanged.
Within the framework of the aforementioned upgrade, Spyros I. Capralos, HELEX CEO, stated that "our initiatives during the last few months, such as the transfer of clearing and settlement of the transactions to Central Bank money, the management of the Auxiliary Fund and the liberalization of OTC trades have contributed to the upgrade of our market. I am confident that the Greek capital market will continue to improve its competitiveness in the future. The only major restrain that we have to deal with at this stage is the stamp duty that has to be eliminated in order to make our market more competitive."
