Alpha Bank

Alpha Bank
legal form	Anonimi etairia Aktiengesellschaft (Greece)
ISIN	GRS015013006
founding	1879
Seat	Athens Greece
management	Costopoulos, Jannis (President)
Number of employees	8927 (company) 15703 (group)
Branch	Credit institution
Website	www.alpha.gr (English, Greek)

Alpha Bank branch on Aegina

The Alpha Bank is the second largest Greek bank. Its headquarters are in Athens . It has 426 branches in Greece, 120 in Bulgaria and 26 in Albania, as well as foreign branches in Cyprus (Alpha Bank Cyprus LTD), Romania (Alpha Bank Romania), Serbia (Alpha Bank Srbija AD), Ukraine (OJSC Astra Bank), North Macedonia (Alpha Bank AD Skopje) and Great Britain (Alpha Bank London Ltd). The company is listed in the Athex Composite Share Price Index on the Athens Stock Exchange .

history

The bank was founded in Kalamata in 1879 and has been operating as Trapeza Pisteos (Greek for credit bank) since 1972 . When most Greek banks switched to English names in the 1990s, the bank referred to itself as Alpha Credit . In its current form (and name), the bank has existed since 1999 when Alpha Credit from Athens took over the Ionian Bank (former state bank of the Republic of the Ionian Islands ). That is why Alpha Bank has numerous branches in smaller towns on the Ionian Islands.

In February 2001, the National Bank of Greece made a takeover offer to Alpha Bank. This was rejected, but negotiations about a merger took place. However, these failed. On August 29, 2011, Alpha Bank and EFG Eurobank Ergasias aimed for a merger, which should be carried out by means of a share swap. On March 14, 2012, Alpha Bank announced that the planned merger would not take place due to high losses resulting from the Greek haircut. Alpha Bank took over Emporiki Bank .

See also

• List of banks in Greece

Web links

• Official homepage of Alpha Bank (Greek, English)
• "Alpha Bank" data sheet from the Athens Stock Exchange

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gerd Höhler: NBG takes over Alpha: Greece's top banks are negotiating a merger . In: Handelsblatt.com . February 18, 2011. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
2. ↑ Reuters: NBG takes over Alpha: Greece's top banks are negotiating a merger . In: Handelsblatt.com . March 14, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2015.