Greece and lenders are routed to seal new bailout – FORTUNE

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece and international creditors were trying on Monday to put the finishing touches on a bailout agreement of billions of euros, which seeks to keep afloat financially the country and meet in a few days with a significant payment of debt to the European Central Bank (ECB).

Greek Ministers and representatives of European institutions and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) resumed talks on Monday morning after a marathon session that ended hours before dawn.

An agreement of up to 86,000 million euros (94.220 million dollars) in new loans to the indebted nation should be ready before August 20, when the payment to the ECB must be canceled.

“From 12 midnight, the two sides began the final leg, discussing the stretch, preparing the final text, sentence by sentence, word by word,” a ministry official said Greek Finance .

Greek officials previously said they expect to conclude negotiations with creditors no later than early Tuesday.

The German government spokesman Steffen Seibert, said Monday that they wanted a quick conclusion of the negotiations, but said that a comprehensive agreement was more important than a fast one.

Greek officials have said they expect the bailout agreement reviewed by the Eurogroup finance ministers -the the euro area on August 14, and it is approved by the Greek Parliament on 18 August.

“When the new rescue plan comes to Parliament for a vote will be a bill with two items: an article will be the loan agreement and the MOU (memorandum of understanding), and the second will be the prior actions “, a Greek official said, referring to measures which Greece must take to rescue the deal takes effect.

The negotiations began on 20 July.

In Berlin, a spokesman for the German Finance Ministry said it would be sensible to link the size of the first tranche of aid to Athens’s progress in implementing reforms.

After a period marked by the harshness, the talks are now characterized by “excellent cooperation” from the Greek side, a senior official of the European Union (EU) said, as Athens is willing to a deal as soon as possible.

However, the official said that a major obstacle for some Member States remains the overall size of the bailout, which some want to reduce it.

From the Greek side, Greek sources said a key issue of concern was how to deal with a mountain of non-performing loans in the banking sector, a factor that may weigh on a potential recapitalization bill for the banks.