ATHENS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Piraeus Bank willlaunch a reward programme for borrowers with home loans whoservice their debt regularly and have no arrears, Greece'slargest lender by assets said on Tuesday.
The move is an attempt to embed a culture of paying on timein a country where many borrowers struggled to service theirdebts during the country's economic crisis.
Saddled with 80 billion euros ($88 billion) ofnon-performing loans, Greek banks have been shedding non-coreassets and shrinking branch networks to reduce the pile.
The non-performing loans (NPL) ratio of Greece's four majorbanks, including mortgages, remained the highest in the EuropeanUnion at the end of 2018 - more than 12 times bigger than the EUaverage of about 3.2%.
Piraeus said it would start returning cash to borrowers,equivalent to a 0.10% reduction of the interest rate on theirhome loans, in January every year. The benefit will be a lumpsum for payments made during the previous year.
Under the programme, Piraeus will also offer home repairloans at preferential low rates of one-month Euribor plus aspread of 1.5%.
The reward programme will apply to borrowers who took outmortgages up to the end of 2014, the bank said.
($1 = 0.9051 euros)(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Mark Potter)