Piraeus Bank

Piraeus Bank
Country	Greece
Seat	Athens
legal form	SA joint stock company
ISIN	GRS014003008
BIC	PIRBGRAAXXX
founding	1916
Website	www.piraeusbank.gr
Business data
Total assets	54,890 million € (2008)
Employee	5.149 GR 9.106 Int.
management
Corporate management	Michalis Sallas (President) Theodore Pantalakis (Vice President)

The Piraeus Bank ( Greek Τράπεζα Πειραιώς , Trapeza Pireos , English Piraeus Bank ) is one of the larger credit institutions in Greece. The Athens- based company operates as a universal bank and has significant subsidiaries in Southeastern Europe , but also has smaller activities in other sectors such as the leasing business.

The bank, founded in 1916, was taken over by the state in 1975 and privatized in 1991. It developed from a specialized bank of shipping to a private sector bank .

The company is listed in the Athex Composite Share Price Index on the Athens Stock Exchange .

history

The bank was founded in 1916 by shipowners as Banque du Pirée as a commercial bank. Between 1969 and 1974 the bank's building, designed by Sir Basil Spence , was erected on Stadionstrasse in Athens. A few protests by art historians preceded the construction, as a Wilhelminian-style commercial building had been demolished. Under state leadership, the house bank of Greek shipowners was expanded into a universal bank . In 1991 the bank was privatized.

Expansion in Greece

A branch on the Greek island of Spetses

The 1990s are characterized by the takeover of smaller branch networks and the expansion of a branch network in Southeast Europe. The small branch networks and branches of Crédit Lyonnais , Chase Manhattan Bank and the National Westminster Bank were taken over in Greece . This was followed by the takeover of 37 percent of Macedonia-Thrace Bank from the National Bank of Greece , the takeover of 35 percent of Xios Bank and the takeover of 58 percent of the former state-owned ETBA Bank (Greek Industrial Development Bank).

internationalization

A branch in Donetsk , Ukraine

The expansion included the establishment of Piraeus Bank Romania in 1995 and Piraeus Bank Albania in 1996 as the first private bank in Albania. Today it has 35 branches. In 1999 the Xios Bank branch in Sofia, Bulgaria was taken over and the Marathon National Bank of Astoria branch in New York City was taken over. In 2000 the Pater Bank in Romania was taken over, which as a subsidiary of the Budapest Bank previously mainly looked after the Hungarian minority. In 2005 the Serbian Atlas Bank (today: Piraeus Bank Beograd) and the Egyptian Commercial Bank (today: Piraeus Bank Egypt) were taken over. This was followed in 2007 by the takeover of Arab Bank Cyprus (today: Piraeus Bank Cyprus) and 99.6 percent of the share capital of International Commerce Bank in Ukraine (since 2008: Bank of Piraeus ICB).

In the wake of the Greek financial crisis

Piraeus Bank was also hit by the Greek financial crisis. The Marathon Bank in New York was sold to the financial company US Bancorp , with the proceeds being taken over parts of ATEbank , as well as Geniki Bank . Piraeus Bank also took over the Greek deposits, loans and the branches and subsidiaries of the Cypriot Bank of Cyprus , Cyprus Popular Bank and Hellenic Bank. In 2013 negotiations took place on the acquisition of the Greek subsidiary of the Portuguese Millennium BCP, trading as NovaBank / Millenium, which led to its takeover.

numbers

At the end of September 2008, the Piraeus Bank Group had 355 branches in Greece and 513 branches abroad. Their balance sheet total was 52,859 million euros, customer deposits of 31,597 million euros and total loan amounts of 38,936 million euros.

The bank has representative offices in New York, London and Moscow; the branch networks abroad include:

• 80 branches in Romania
• 84 branches in Bulgaria
• 38 branches in Albania
• 38 branches in Serbia
• 54 branches in Egypt.

Subsidiaries abroad (selection)

Egypt

The bank was founded in 1978 as Alexandria Kuwait International Bank and renamed Egyptian Commercial Bank in 1997 . In June 2005, the Egyptian Commercial Bank in Egypt was taken over (today's stake 95.35 percent) and renamed Piraeus Bank Egypt SAE . At the end of June 2008, assets of 1,668 million euros were managed by 1,312 employees in 54 branches. Mohamed Gamal Moharam is Chairman and CEO.

Bulgaria

The bank started in 1993 in Bulgaria. At the beginning of 2005, Eurobank in Bulgaria was taken over. The takeover lasted until March 2006. In 2006, Piraeus Bank and Eurobank were merged and renamed Piraeus Bank Bulgaria AD. ING Bank Bulgaria took over the private customer business until mid-2007. The Dirent leasing business was also taken over by ING Bank and renamed Piraeus Best Leasing . At the end of June 2007, the bank managed assets of 2,211 million euros with 984 employees in 84 branches. The bank has a market share of 7.5 percent of domestic assets. It has the following subsidiaries:

• Bulfina - Real Estate Brokerage
• Piraeus Leasing Bulgaria
• Piraeus Auto Leasing Bulgaria - founded in March 2005
• Piraeus Insurance Brokerage - founded in June 2006
• Piraeus Best Leasing (formerly Dirent - taken over in 2007)

Ukraine

In 2007 Piraeus Bank acquired a majority in OJSC International Commerce Bank of Ukraine . On September 13, 2007, she announced that she had acquired 99.6 percent of the shares. In early 2008 the International Commerce Bank was renamed Piraeus Bank ICB .

Piraeus Bank ICB is present in 11 of the 24 regions of Ukraine. The balance sheet total is 2,346 million UAH (approx. 224.28 million euros), deposits from private individuals 312 million UAH (approx. 29.83 million euros), loan volume 1,995 million UAH (approx. 190.36 million euros) and the financial result 20.2 million UAH (approx. 1.93 million euros) (values ​​as of November 1, 2008).

Marathon Bank (until June 2012)

In 1999 the Marathon National Bank of Astoria was taken over. The Marathon Bank was founded in 1989 initially for Greek immigrants in Astoria, a borough of Queens in New York City . In January 2004, Interbank New York was taken over with 5 branches, mainly in the districts of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan (Park Avenue). Both banks were merged to form the Marathon Bank . In autumn 2005 the first branch was opened in Fort Lee (New Jersey) .

At the end of June 2008, Marathon Bank New York managed assets of 536 million euros with 168 employees in 14 branches. To finance the takeover of Greek banks, the Marathon Bank was sold to the financial company US Bancorp in June 2012.

further activities

Financing and leasing

In addition to the traditional banking business, other activities have also been expanded: Piraeus Bank is involved in retail banking , the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in capital markets , in investment banking , in the leasing business , in the real estate business and in the financing of shipping.

In 2002 a strategic alliance began with the Dutch ING Groep , followed in 2006 by the establishment of the joint insurance company ING-Piraeus . In 2007 the Piraeus Bank took over 100 percent of the car rental company Avis Rent A Car in Greece for 25.5 million euros. The entry into the rental car business should result in considerable synergy effects with the leasing subsidiary Piraeus Leasing , in which a vehicle fleet worth 200 million euros will be taken over.

The cultural foundation

The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP) is the bank's cultural foundation. In addition to our own activities, we also support external projects. The foundation is located in Plaka, Athens, in a building that was built during the reign of King Otto. The foundation also looks after the historical archive of the Piraeus Bank.

In 2012 the foundation was awarded the Europa Nostra Prize .

See also

• List of banks in Greece

swell

1. ↑ Entry in the BIC directory at SWIFT
2. ↑ http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/banken/uebernahme-gespraeche-piraeus-bank-will-millennium-t Nahrungsmittel-kaufen/ 7747096.html
3. ↑ Piraeus Bank timeline ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) 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. 
4. ↑ Annual report as of December 31, 2007 ( Memento of the original from December 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 587 kB) - page 8 
5. ↑ http://www.piraeusbank.gr/ecportal.asp?id=242399&lang=2&nt=96%20&sid=  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ ^{a b} Archived copy ( memento of the original from May 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) 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. 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) 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. 
9. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) 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. 
10. ↑ http://www.piraeusbank.gr/ecportal.asp?id=234684&lang=2&nt=96%20&sid=  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/15/greece-piraeusbank-idUSA8E8E501R20120615
12. ↑ http://www.europanostra.org/awards/86/

Web links

• Piraeus Bank Homepage ( gr + en )