Greece’s banking system is now healthy, well capitalized, with liquidity and profitability after 15 years of successive crises, Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said this week.

Addressing the annual general meeting of the Hellenic Bank Association, he said the country’s banks had moved from being viewed as one of the Greek economy’s biggest weaknesses to becoming one of its strongest assets.

“Banks now have a rare opportunity to shape the environment in which they will operate,” he said.