"It's not a matter of if there's a reprofiling.
Asked by Ethnos if he would consider a debt "reprofiling" rather than a restructuring, Papandreou said: "We are looking after our job..
Euro-zone ministers have not spelled out how what they refer to as a "reprofiling" of Greek debt would work.
Whether officials dress up a Greek restructuring as a "reprofiling," "rescheduling" or "voluntary bond exchange," it would be widely understood as a default.
And no European politician wants to be seen giving more taxpayers' money to the Greeks without getting something back.Another option is a "reprofiling", whereby creditors agree to a voluntary extension of the maturity of their bonds.
Referred to as a reprofiling, this softer approach was used successfully in Uruguay in 2003 and for weeks now has been a hot topic for discussion among policy makers in Europe as well as economists and analysts at investment banks.
A reprofiling would allow bondholders to avoid the stark losses they would face under a restructuring and would also give breathing room to Greece to generate enough cash to begin paying its debts.
Unless it is backed by a supermajority of 12 out of 15 members, the decision is passed to an external review committee of independent experts, a kind of supreme court for the CDS market.Who would win and who would lose if a reprofiling of Greek debt were treated as a credit event?
The ratings agencies have already determined that if there is any indication that banks are being forced to participate in such a reprofiling, that would constitute a "distressed debt exchange" and violate the terms of the original contract between Greece and its creditors.
