National Bank of Greece

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National Bank of Greece

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN GRS003003019
founding 1841
Seat Athens , GreeceGreeceGreece 
management Leonidas E. Fragkiadakis (CEO)
George Zanias (Chairman of the Board (Non Executive), since July 9, 2012)
Number of employees 15,515 (2017)
Website www.nbg.gr

The National Bank of Greece ( NBG ; Greek : Εθνική Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος ( Ethnikí Trápeza tis Elládos )) is the largest credit institution in Greece in terms of total assets and number of employees . The Athens- based company operates as a universal bank.

The NBG share is listed in the Athex Composite Share Price Index on the Athens Stock Exchange . The bank, founded in 1841, developed from a state bank into a large private bank in the early 20th century .

In the wake of the Greek sovereign debt crisis , the Greek rescue fund for banks took over the majority stake in the National Bank (as well as the major institutions Piraeus Bank and Alpha Bank).

With the “NBG Historical Archive”, the bank has an institution that scientifically processes its own history and the financial history of Greece; she also looks after the group's art collection.

history

As a central and commercial bank

Royal decree establishing the National Bank of Greece, signed by Julius von Hößlin on April 27, 1841
Share from 1925
The old National Bank building, where the public cash desk was located until 1962, was built by Ernst Ziller

The "Greek National Bank" (so the contemporary translation) was founded in Athens in 1841 and is therefore the oldest bank in Greece today. 5000 shares were issued, of which the state held 1000. The bank started its business operations on July 1st (13th) with the opening of the first office building. The founder was the trader and revolutionary Georgios Stavrou (1788–1869) from Ioannina , who was also the first director. The philhellene and banker Jean-Gabriel Eynard and the Athens banker Julius von Hößlin played a key role in building the bank . The field of activity included the issuing, discount and basic loan business, from 1843 additionally the deposit business and from 1859 the issue of bonds. Ludwig von Bayern was also one of the buyers of the funds spent. The bank had also been given the right to invest in private companies and to set up its own insurance company. The profit, which was distributed to the shareholders as dividends every six months, amounted to 8.75% annually. The Neue Münchener Zeitung reported on the bank's economic successes in 1849 :

“Considering the great security which the k. Greek National Bank granted its shareholders through the funds to be lent on land, and the short period of its existence, the above paragraphs make it clear that the success of the Bank of Athens has not yet been achieved by any company in the European trading world "

The Prussian Vice Consul von Zante also mentions the bank positively in his four-year report in 1865:

"The Greek National Bank is by the way a very solid and excellently managed private company"

Expressly as a temporary measure up to the establishment of an agricultural bank, loans were granted to farmers in 1861; previously this was only available to business people. These were granted as personal loans against guarantees on a mortgage basis. The company's shares have been traded on the Athens Stock Exchange since 1888 . At the end of the 19th century, the bank competed nationally with the Banque d'Athènes and the Banque d'Orient as well as other regional credit institutions.

The National Bank of Greece also acted as the central bank of Greece and issued the Greek banknotes alongside the Ionian Bank (for the Ionian Islands).

The bank also began promoting culture in the 19th century. The artist Nikiphoros Lytras (1832–1904) was hired to portray the directors of the bank and to do commissioned work.

Start as a commercial bank

The years 1928 and 1929 brought about significant changes in the Greek banking system, which also affected the NBG. The agricultural credit business was transferred to the new Agricultural Bank, the mortgage business to the new National Mortgage Bank and the central banking tasks to the newly established Bank of Greece . For the first time, Law No. 5076, which was passed in 1931, comprehensively regulated the tasks and obligations of banks, as well as the installation of banking supervision. Due to the low level of international ties, NBG survived the global economic crisis without any significant losses.

During the occupation of Greece, the bank was forcibly placed under the administration of Deutsche Bank in April 1941. The occupying power claimed that this would lead to increased investments by German companies. In fact, this served primarily to make business relations with other countries more difficult and to facilitate transactions with regard to Greek raw material deposits, especially chromium and bauxite, which are important for the war effort.

State-influenced oligopoly

In 1952 the Banque d'Athènes was acquired, which at that time was the second largest commercial bank in Greece, in 1962 it was merged with the NBG. The head office of this bank on Stadiou Street became the central public cash desk and replaced the previous public cash desk of the National Bank of Greece in Aeoloustraße. With the Ethnokarta (ΕΘΝΟΚΑΡΤΑ) the bank brought out the first credit card in Greece, which was later taken over by Mastercard.

Alongside NBG, Emporiki Bank emerged as the second largest bank. Both banks dominated the national market and economic transactions to and from Greece until they were deregulated in the early 1990s. The NBG had foreign branches and subsidiaries in many major cities around the world.

Deregulation of the market, foundation of the NBG Group

The deregulation of the Greek banking market led to a strategic realignment of the National Bank of Greece. From then on, the bank had to reckon with more competition on the Greek market, as the previous specialized banks now also acted as general commercial banks, now often under the leadership of foreign parent companies.

The sale of the North American subsidiary Atlantic Bank of New York (2006) and the ten branches of NBG Canada to the Bank of Nova Scotia (2005) served to finance the expansion in Southeastern Europe, where better growth opportunities existed than in the saturated North American market, where the NBG only played a niche role anyway. Almost all European branches were also closed, including NBG Bank Germany . (The office building in Frankfurter Gutleutstrasse is still owned by NBG.)

The new acquisitions included the Romanian Banca Românească and Serbian Vojvođanska Bank, as well as a 42 percent stake in the Turkish Finansbank , which was later increased to a majority stake. Market entry in Ukraine and Russia was examined, but found to be too risky. By 2017, the NBG separated from the foreign holdings.

In the wake of the crisis

When the rating agencies declared Greek government bonds to be junk bonds for relatively short periods of time, the NBG share price also collapsed, after a negative report by S&P the following day by 10%, the price halved within months. At the beginning of the Greek crisis at the end of 2009, NBG had increased its portfolio of Greek government bonds from 16.2 to around 18 billion euros; however, it started selling them out relatively quickly. According to its report for the first quarter of 2011, NBG has now sold 4.8 billion euros of it; At the end of March 2011 she still had 13.2 billion euros of it. Trying to stay out of the crisis as much as possible did not ultimately slow down the bank’s share’s slump.

In the 2010 European stress test , the bank achieved an equity ratio of 10.8%, which is significantly more than other European banks. The minimum core capital ratio of 9% required by the European Banking Authority (EBA) was thus met.

In February 2011, NBG made a takeover offer to Alpha Bank . This was rejected, and subsequent negotiations did not lead to any result. The chairman of the board, Vasilis Rapanos , was appointed finance minister of Greece in 2012, but did not take up the post due to his rapidly deteriorating health. In January 2013, the takeover of EFG Eurobank Ergasias was examined but ultimately rejected. On April 29, 2013, the shareholders approved a capital increase. In November 2013, NBG sold its majority stake in the real estate company Pangaia , which was sold to a group of investors for EUR 653 million.

On December 4, 2015, the European Commission approved state aid amounting to EUR 2.71 billion.

In December 2015, NBG announced that it would sell its Turkish subsidiary Finansbank to QNB from Qatar for EUR 2.75 billion. In December 2016 it was announced that NBG will sell the majority of its Bulgarian subsidiary United Bulgarian Bank to KBC .

In 2017, the bank, together with Wirecard, launched Alipay in Greece, which is aimed in particular at Chinese tourists.

management

The boss (CEO) is Leonidas E. Fragkiadakis. The previous CEO Alexandros Tourkolias (since November 26, 2010) announced his resignation on February 8, 2015. Shortly before, there had been a change of government to the Alexis Tsipras I cabinet .

Corporate responsibility

The National Bank of Greece is committed to its social responsibility as a global company (Corporate Social Responsibility) in accordance with its NBG Group CSR Policy . This is supplemented by the Environmental Policy Statement of the National Bank of Greece and the annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report .

It is noticeable that the traditional image of patronage is still used and less popular sponsorship. The translation or the publication of university textbooks is financed with the aim of shaping the bank's reputation over the long term.

The NBG Historical Archive

As early as 1864, the bank began to process its holdings of historical documents. In 1920 a separate archive building followed, from 1938 historical and confidential customer material were separated from each other in order to allow scientists to look into the bank's documents. In 1962 the institutional anchoring of an archive for the 125th anniversary of the NBG in 1966 was decided. It had to close in 1967 by decree of the junta and after its end it did not open until 1977. Today it is the most comprehensive historical economic archive in Greece and has also organized public exhibitions since 2002. Since 2005 it has also been allowed to train archivists.

The cultural foundation

The branch of the Cultural Foundation in Thessaloniki

The Cultural Foundation of the National Bank (Morfotiko Idryma Ethnikis Trapezis, MIET) was founded in 1966 and started its activities in 1974 (suspended due to the conditions under the Greek military dictatorship). The foundation has three locations: Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras.

The library

The Library of National Bank of Greece has existed since 1919. It is open to the public. Borrowing is only permitted for employees of the NBG Group and external partner libraries.

Memberships

See also

Web links

Commons : National Bank of Greece  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Group and Bank. Annual Financial Report 31 December 2016. (PDF) National Bank of Greece SA, March 2017, accessed on May 8, 2017 .
  2. ↑ PDF
  3. ↑ a b FAZ.net .
  4. ^ Wilh Hoffmann: General Encyclopedia for Merchants, Manufacturers, 1848 p. 263
  5. ↑ Pavlos Katsioupis: structure of banking in Greece, 1984, p 35
  6. ↑ Karl Friedrich Becker's Weltgeschichte: Volumes 13-14 - page 321, 1841
  7. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Reden (Freiherr von): Turkey and Greece in their ability to develop, 1856, p. 184ff.
  8. ^ Neue Münchener Zeitung of March 9, 1849, No. 58
  9. ^ Deutsches Handels-Archiv: Zeitschrift für Handel und Gewerbe, p. 408, 1867
  10. ^ Greece: Handbook for Travelers, K. Baedeker, 1883, page xxvii
  11. ↑ [Nikolaos A. Lyberis: The approval of credit institutions in the Greek banking supervisory board with special consideration of the Community law harmonization obligation, 2002, p. 23]
  12. ↑ [Susanne-Sophia Spiliotis: Transterritorialität and national demarcation, 1998, p 98ff]
  13. ↑ Matthew Lynn: Bankruptcy: Greece, the Euro and the National Debt Crisis. John Wiley & Sons, 2011, ISBN 978-3-527-50604-0 , p. 180. Restricted preview in Google Book Search
  14. ^ By Ferry Batzoglou, Athens: Fear of bankruptcy: Major Greek bank is fleeing from Greek bonds. In: Spiegel Online . June 15, 2011, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Christina Hiptmayr: Greece's banks threaten to go under. In: profil.at. June 1, 2012, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Gerd Höhler: Greece's top banks are negotiating a merger. In: handelsblatt.com . February 18, 2011, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  17. ↑ National Bank of Greece seals $ 880 mln property deal. In: reuters.com. November 25, 2013, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  18. ^ National Bank of Greece gets 2.71 billion euro state aid by the European Commission . In: Reuters . December 4, 2015 ( reuters.com [accessed January 1, 2016]).
  19. ↑ Laura Noonan: NBG offloads Finansbank to QNB at bargain price . In: Financial Times . December 22, 2015, ISSN  0307-1766 ( ft.com [accessed January 1, 2016]).
  20. ↑ National Bank of Greece sells daughter KBC - news.ORF.at . In: news.ORF.at . December 30, 2016 ( orf.at [accessed January 7, 2017]).
  21. ↑ http://www.onvista.de/news/ots-wirecard-ag-wirecard-und-die-national-bank-of-greece-haben-alipay-59599277
  22. ↑ CSR Policy of NBG and its Group
  23. ↑ Environmental Policy Statement of NBG
  24. ^ Sebastian Jost, Nina Trentmann ("Die Welt"): National Bank: Shifted the focus. In: handelszeitung.ch. March 2014, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  25. ^ Historical Chronicle. (No longer available online.) In: ha.nbg.gr. Archived from the original on January 28, 2014 ; accessed on January 2, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ha.nbg.gr