Piraeus Bank's head says Greece needs a new start

Speaking to reporters, hours after the Greek Parliament overwhelmingly approved a draft bill including a first package of prior actions agreed with the country's creditors, Sallas said: "The country needs a new story, a new start. We must all see this new agreement as an opportunity for the restructuring of public finances and strengthening the country's competitiveness".

The Greek banker stressed the need to lay the foundations for the modernization and recovery of the economy and noted that focus must be given to investments and upgrading growth and basically dealing with unemployment. "We have to offer a prospect to the country's youth and brains. Today, all Greeks and first of all the business community are called to declare present in the restart of the economy".

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank's managing board will meet later today to decide on whether to raise or not liquidity for Greek banks through the Emergency Liquidity Assistance mechanism, while the Eurogroup will hold a teleconference meeting to agree on a 7.0 billion euros bridge loan to Greece.