BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greece told euro zone finance ministers it was aiming to complete the second set of reforms under its bailout programme by the middle of December, in a move that would secure the release of the next tranche of loans, a draft statement showed.
Euro zone finance ministers, meeting in Brussels, discussed progress of Greek reforms on Monday and agreed to release 2 billion euros (£1.4 billion) to Athens in exchange for the completion of the first set of measures to boost the economy.
"We will now turn our attention to the next stages of the ESM programme and call on the Greek authorities to accelerate the work with the institutions on the second and final set of milestones," the draft statement of the ministers said.
"We welcome the commitment of the Greek authorities to finalise the second set of milestones by mid-December," it said.
The next tranche linked to the second set of reforms is 1 billion euros.
Greece will now also be able to access up to 10 billion euros from the euro zone to recapitalise its four biggest banks.
The ministers said that all four institutions had been able to raise enough additional capital from private investors to cover capital needs outlined in the baseline scenario of the European Central Bank's stress test -- 4.4 billion euros.
Two of the banks were also able to raise enough private cash to cover their needs under the adverse scenario of the ECB stress test, which called for a total of 14.4 billion euros for the whole sector.