Greece hoping for international lenders deal to unlock next aid tranche

Greece is aiming for a deal with international lenders today on the next set of reforms to unlock extra aid, but differences remain over how to handle banks’ bad loans. 

Athens is struggling to keep non-performing loans to small business and consumers out of the clutches of so-called vulture funds that buy loan books of distressed debt at a discount and try to recover the money.

Prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s government started a new round of talks with eurozone institutions and the IMF this week on the bad loans, as well as splitting off the country’s power grid operator from dominant electricity utility PPC and making state sector wages dependent on performance.