Top 10 Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Top 10 Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now: National Bank of Greece SA (NBG)

National Bank of Greece S.A. (the Bank), incorporated on March 30, 1841, is a Greece-based financial institution. It offers a range of integrated financial services, including corporate and investment banking, retail banking (including mortgage lending), leasing, stock brokerage, asset management and venture capital, insurance, real estate and consulting services. In addition, the Company is involved in various other businesses, including hotel and property management, real estate and information technology (IT) consulting. On May 19, 2009, the Bank established Ethniki Factors S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary. On June 8, 2009, Finansbank A.S. established Finans Faktoring Hizmetleri A.S. (Finans Factoring), a wholly owned subsidiary. On June 30, 2009, NBG Luxemburg Holding S.A. and NBG Luxfinance Holding S.A. were merged to NBG Asset Management Luxemburg S.A. On January 18, 2010, the Bank acquired 35% of the share capital of AKTOR FM. On October 16, 2009, United Bulgarian Ba nk A.D. (UBB) established UBB Factoring E.O.O.D., a wholly owned subsidiary of UBB. On September 15, 2009, the Bank disposed of its investment in Phosphoric Fertilizers Industry S.A.

At December 31, 2009, the Bank operated in Greece through 575 branches, one private banking unit, one unit for financial institutions and 10 specialized banking units that deal exclusively with troubled and non-performing loans. At December 31, 2009, the Bank had over 1500 automated teller machines (ATMs).

Retail Banking

The Bank offers retail customers a number of different types of deposit and investment products, as well as a range of services and products. The Bank offers a range of mortgage products, with floating, fixed, or a combination of fixed and floating interest rates. In February 2009, the Bank introduced a new floating rate p! roduct, the ESTIA MIKTO with flexible payment terms. In addition to fire and earthquake property insurance, the Bank o ffers an optional life insurance plan together with mortgage! s.

The Small Business Lending Unit (SBL Unit) a part of the Bank's retail banking division consists of three credit centers situated in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patrastail. The SBL Unit offers term loans geared towards medium and long-term working capital needs for the financing of asset purchases.

Corporate and Investment Banking

The Bank offers corporate accounts with overdraft facilities, foreign currency loans, variable rate loans, and currency swaps and options for corporate customers. The Bank's commercial loan portfolio in Greece comprises approximately 50,000 corporate clients, including small and medium sized enterprises. It offers the corporate clients a range of products and services, including financial and investment advisory services, deposit accounts, loans denominated in euro and other currencies, foreign exchange services, insurance products, custody arrangements and trade finance services. The Bank lends primarily in the form of credit lines, which are generally at variable rates of interest with payment terms of up to 12 months. In addition, the Bank provides letters of credit and guarantees for its clients.

The Bank's shipping finance and syndicated loan portfolio consists of first-tier shipping groups involved in diversified shipping activities. The Bank provided project finance advisory services to the Hellenic Republic on two infrastructure projects: the new Attica Motorway and Kasteli International Airport.

Global Markets & Asset Management

The treasury activities provided by the Bank and its subsidiaries include

Greek and other sovereign securities trading, foreign exchange trading, interbank lending and borrowing in euro and other currency placements/ deposits, forward rate agreement trading, repurchase agr! eements, ! corporate bonds, and derivative products, such as options and interest rate and currency swaps. The Bank also conduc ts a portion of its treasury activities through its subsidia! ry CPT. A! s at December 31, 2009; CPT's portfolio comprised Greek government bonds and corporate bonds, with a total value of EUR 1.8 billion.

The Bank offers its private banking services both domestically and internationally from its international private banking units in London. The Bank offers custodian services to its foreign and domestic institutional clients who hold equity securities listed on the ATHEX or listed Greek State debt, as well as remote settlement and custody services on the Cyprus Stock Exchange. The Bank offers trade settlements, safekeeping of securities, corporate action processing, income collection, proxy voting, tax reclamation, brokerage services, customized reporting, regular market flashes and information services. The Bank also acts as global custodian to its domestic institutional clients who invest in securities outside of Greece.

The domestic fund management business is operated by NBG Asset Management, which is wholly owned by the Group. NBG Asset Management manages funds that are made available to customers through the Bank's extensive branch network. As at December 31, 2009, NBG Asset Management's total assets under management were EUR 1.9 billion.

National Securities S.A offers a range of investment services to both individual and institutional customers. In September 2009, National Securities S.A. opened a branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, to provide brokerage services to local private investors.

Turkish Operations

The Bank's Turkish operations include the Finansbank group of companies and NBG Bank (Malta) Ltd. Finansbank's group of companies includes Finans Invest, Finans Leasing, Finans Portfolio Management, Finans Investment Trust, Finans Factoring, IBTech, Finans Pension, and Finans Consumer Finance. As at December 31! , 2009, F! inansbank operated through a network of 461 branches in 60 cities.

Finansbank Corporate Banking serves corporati ons through its eight branches in the four cities in Turkey.! Finansba! nk Commercial Banking serves medium-sized companies located in 23 cities in Turkey through its head office, four regional offices (three in Istanbul and one in Ankara) and a distribution network, which includes 61 branches.

Finansbank Investment Banking consists of project finance, corporate finance and technical consulting. Investment Banking acts as a client relations specialist while providing medium to long-term loans and other products. Finansbank Private Banking has been providing investment products and asset management services to individuals through eight private banking centers and 28 private banking corners located in Finansbank's branches in the cities throughout Turkey.

International

The Bank's international operations include the Bank's branches in Albania, Egypt and Cyprus, as well as banking subsidiaries in six countries: NBG Cyprus; Stopanska Banka A.D. in FYROM; United Bulgarian Bank A.D. in Bulgaria; Banca Romaneasca S.A., in Romania; Vojvodjanska in Serbia; and the South African Bank of Athens, as well as other subsidiaries, primarily in the leasing sector. As at December 31, 2009, the Bank had foreign branches in four countries, including one in the United Kingdom, 30 in Albania, one in Cyprus, 15 in Egypt and one in Guernsey (which closed early in 2010).

Insurance

The Bank provides insurance services to individuals and companies through the wholly owned subsidiary Ethniki Insurance Group (EI) and Finans Pension. EI offers a range of products such as life, accident and health insurance for individuals and groups, fire, catastrophe, credit, motor, marine hull and cargo insurance, and general third party liability. EI operates through a network of 2,850 tied agents and 2,620 independent insurance brokers, in addition ! to sellin! g bancassurance products through the Bank's network. EI provides bancassurance products through our insurance brokerage subsidiary NBG B ancassurance S.A. (NBGB), which assumes no insurance underwr! iting ris! k, and the Bank's extensive network in Greece.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  There's just one problem with the big runups from Elephant Talk Communications, WidePoint Corporation, and CytRx Corporation. That problem? Before the surges, it was very unlikely any of them were on very many traders' radars. In fact, it's very likely most traders had never even heard of at least one of them (if not two). The trick to creating success as a speculator of small cap stocks is spotting a big winner before the runup starts to materialize, since (to be blunt, but honest), most small cap stock picks aren't all that rewarding. Enter the National Bank of Greece (NYSE:NBG). The National Bank of Greece is also one of the small caps that has gone ballistic of late? No, it hasn't - that's just it. NBG hasn't gone anywhere of late. If the very subtle clues are on target though, then this stock has a good shot at becoming the next WYY, ETAK, or CYTR, and you know about it before it actually happens.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Moody’s raised the rating of Greece’s government bonds to Caa3 with a “stable” outlook. Now we have five Greek banks being given credit rating upgrades as well. The one upgrade that ADR investors will want to watch is the rating on the National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG). Moody’s signaled that the upgrade reflects NBG’s more favorable asset-quality, funding profile and earnings than local peers. It also is based upon an expectation of further capital enhancements to address its weaker capital base.

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  What do Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHTP), National Bank of Greece (NYSE:NBG), and Walter Energy, Inc. (NYSE:WLT) have in common. They all have! charts w! orth a much closer look right now. That's not to say they're all dropping the same bullish hint. In fact, WLT, NBG, and CHTP are all dropping distinctly-different hints as to their likely near-term future. But, trading action is trading action no matter which direction it's in. Take a look.
  
  Yes: Truth be told, shares of the National Bank of Greece have been working on a rally for a while. It's only been recently, however, that NBG has made it clear it's not going to give up. The stock crossed above the 100-day moving average line (gray) early in the month, and has continued to peel away. Yes, National Bank of Greece hit something of a soft patch last week, but the 20-day moving average line (blue) has since stepped up to the plate as a technical floor, rekindling the uptrend yesterday day and toda y. Perhaps most bullish of all is the fact that NBG has started to increase volume on the way up, after it cleared the 100-day moving average line,

• [By David Hanson and Matt Koppenheffer]

  The broader market was trading roughly flat in the early hours of trading today, but a few financial stocks were still moving higher. National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG  ) continued its meteoric rise over the past 30 days, and MBIA (NYSE: MBI  ) investors are still reveling over the settlement with Bank of America.

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-bank-stocks-to-invest-in-right-now.html