The Petrofin Index for Greek Ship finance, which commenced at 100 in 2001 and peaked at 443 in 2008, increased to 361, from 324 in 2024. It should be noted that the Petrofin Index relates to bank related finance only. Finance via SLBs, leasing and other forms of lending are not included.
International banks without a Greek presence had a drop of 4.3% reversing the previous year’s growth of 2.5%. Among the 3 bank groups, this is the only group that fell in 2025.
International Banks with Greek presence went up by 9% upending their 6.2% drop of the previous year.
Greek banks, the group that had the largest increase of 34%, displayed a strong acceleration and continued its upward trend.
International banks (both with and without Greek presence) found that the Greek banks’ ability to perform, undercut their own competitiveness. Additionally, Greek banks were able to offer improved loan terms and attracted more business from Greek owners, including newbuilding finance. However, Greek banks’ client LTV remained modest.
Total drawn loans increased by 8%.
End year total commitments went up by 32%, continuing their vote of confidence in Greek shipping.
Greek banks account for most of such growth.
The number of all banks has gone down again to 47, primarily due to mergers & acquisitions.
For the first time the National Bank of Greece ended at the very top position of lenders to Greek shipping marking a huge growth of 53%, inclusive of commitments. All Greek banks grew their loan portfolios robustly and among the top lenders, Greek banks occupied the top 3 places.
The top 10 Greek ship financing banks stood at $41.91bn compared to $35.98bn in 2024, a significant increase of 16.5%. Their market share shows steady growth reaching 70% for the first time in many years, compared to 67% in 2024.
Greek shipping Sustainability linked portfolios have shown a stronger year, compared to 2024.
European banks saw an increase in their portfolios of 19%, outgrowing the much weaker 3.6% growth of 2024. This growth was mainly due to the strength of Greek banks. This is reflected in the growth of the European market share of the total Greek shipping portfolio, which went up to 78% compared to 73% in 2024.
It is believed that European banks that remain in Greek ship finance are aiming to expand their portfolios further in this sector. Indeed, of the banks involved in Greek ship finance, the vast majority have higher loan portfolio budgets for 2026 and are only limited from growing by competition from non-bank related finance, as well as prepayments due to the high liquidity of Greek owners and high interest rates.
The newbuilding finance share of the forward commitments has increased from 54.5% in 2024 to 58% by the end of 2025.
Source: Petrofin Research
