S&P's fires warning over Greece roll-over

Standard & Poor's has warned proposals put forward by French banks to rollover Greek debt would effectively mean the country is in default.

The French banking federation has proposed financial institutions invest 70% of the proceeds of their maturing Greek government bonds in newly-issued 30-year Greek government bonds, or 90% of the proceeds in the country's newly-issued five-year bonds. However, S&P's said the proposals from the Fédération Bancaire Française (FBF) would likely be classified as a default by the ratings agency. S&P's said in a statement: "It is our view that each of the two financing options described in the FBF proposal would likely amount to a default under our criteria. "If either option were implem...