Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 08:16 am

Apple's iPad plays crucial role in Greece's debt restructuring

By AppleInsider Staff

One-hundred iPads were used to coordinate tens of thousands of bondholders signing off on the restructuring of Greece's debt.

Bob Apfel of Bondholder Communications Group was tasked with getting roughly 100,000 bondholders from around the globe to sign off on a series of complex restructuring transactions. He told Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Apple 2.0 that he decided to do "something different," and bought 100 iPads to ensure the process went as smoothly as possible.

The iPads were outfitted with a custom debt restructuring app and provided to representatives from a number of organizations, including the Greek Finance Ministry, the Hellenic Exchange, the Bank of Greece, and the external banks that managed the deal. The goal, Apfel said, was to create a "platform that could follow the financier," as most of the leadership team spent their time on the road, rather than in an office.

"It was the largest financial transaction in the history of the world," Apfel said, "and we couldn't have done it without the iPad."

The leadership team finalized the deal and it was closed on April 25. In all, it reduced the Greek debt by $130 billion, from $270 billion to $140 billion.


As use of the iPad has grown in the enterprise, the financial services industry in particular has found new ways to adopt Apple's iPad. Data from Good Technology released in April cited the financial industry as one of the most popular business segments for activation of the iPad.