Greek banks are under pressure to merge after suffering steep losses from the country's debt restructuring, heavy deposit withdrawals and rising bad loans, but short of cash, they have no option but to swap shares in order to merge. A merger would need approval from the Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF), the bank support fund that has started to recapitalise the country's viable banks. Once the share exchange is completed, NBG shareholders will own 75% of the combined entity, with Eurobank shareholders owning the rest.