"We are focused on expanding premium lending, despite challenging economic times," says Kenneth Chenault, the firm's chief executive.
The upshot of the ECB's €1 trillion in long-term bank lending is that sovereign premiums were temporarily depressed...by national banks that purchased sovereign debt to post it as collateral at the ECB.
Across Europe this has shot up in recent weeks, reflecting the market's perception that the risks of interbank lending have increased (though premiums are still far from their 2008 peaks).French banks, however, appear particularly vulnerable because they have lent heavily to countries on the troubled periphery.
In Latvia, Mauritius and Moldova, we've helped to increase the recoveries of creditors from non-performing loans which, in turn, results in more lending at lower risk premiums, as well as increased opportunities for entrepreneurs.
When pressed, he said that if a Grexit drove the financial markets to demand a premium before lending to another country, Germany would reassure them by proposing more integrated eurozone policy-making.
The reason for this is that US business is highly dependent on the corporate bond market, where investors have taken fright at the wipe out in equities and demanded a higher risk premium for lending to companies.
After all, if a government like Italy's were to abuse that freedom, by running up unmanageable deficits, it would be the Italians who suffered worst because the markets would charge a risk premium for lending to Italy.But defenders of the stability and growth pact disagree.
Second, the bank's risk premium for lending is high when the bank estimates that the possibility of the firm's bankruptcy is high.
Investors are worried and, understandably, demanding higher premiums to lend to Greece.
