While Greece’s lenders are on firmer footing after getting capital from euro-area and International Monetary Fund bailout funds, they still need to reduce the non-performing loans that have tripled to 29 percent of the total in three years, and are threatening their new-found solvency. One obstacle is a five-year ban on foreclosures that prevented thousands of Greeks from losing their homes after the economy went into free-fall. The government is now considering a plan to ease the restrictions by the end of this year to satisfy its creditors’ demands. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said last month that banks face serious problems if they’re not allowed to repossess and auction homes of people who don’t pay their mortgages. “At the moment, even people who can afford to pay the mortgages do not,” said National Bank of Greece SA Deputy Chief Executive Petros Christodoulou. “When the new law is passed and officially foreclosures are allowed over a certain benchmark, we will see that the credit ethos will return.”