Piraeus Bank

Piraeus Bank SA

Native name	Τράπεζα Πειραιώς Α.Ε.
Type	Anonymi Etairia
Traded as	Athex: TPEIR
Industry	Financial services
Founded	(1916 (1916))[1]
Headquarters	Athens, Greece
Number of locations	960 branches in Greece (December 2013)[2]
Area served	Greece Frankfurt London
Key people	Michael Sallas (Chairman)[3] Stavros Lekkakos (CEO)
Products	Retail, private, investment and commercial banking, asset management
Employees	15,000 (2013) 9,600 (2012) [4][5]
Subsidiaries	ETVA Industrial Parks SA Geniki Bank SA JSC Piraeus Bank ICB Piraeus Asset Management Europe SA Piraeus Bank Beograd AD Piraeus Bank Bulgaria AD Piraeus Bank Cyprus Ltd Piraeus Bank Egypt S.A.E. Piraeus Bank Romania SA Piraeus Wealth Management A.E.P.E.Y Tirana Bank I.B.C. SA
Website	piraeusbank.gr

Piraeus Bank is a Greek financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece.^[6] It operates in Greece, Frankfurt and London through a branch network of 960 stores. Its banking subsidiaries operate in 7 countries, namely Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine. Geniki Bank is also a subsidiary of Piraeus Bank, operating in Greece. As of September 2013, it is the leading bank in Greece with a 30% market share in loans and 29% in deposits.^[7] Piraeus Bank's stocks are listed in the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) since January 1918.^[8]

Activities

Piraeus Bank is a universal bank providing various banking services.

Historically a bank supportive of SMEs it now also possesses particular know-how in the areas of agricultural banking, consumer and mortgage credit, green banking, capital markets, investment banking, leasing and electronic banking.^[9]

Piraeus Bank Group

Piraeus Bank and its subsidiaries form the Piraeus Bank Group.^[10]

History

The historic building of the bank in Athens

A group of shipowners in Piraeus founded Banque du Pirée (Piraeus Bank; BP) in 1916 to finance trade. The Greek government bought the bank in 1975 and transformed it into a universal bank. The new headquarters designed by Sir Basil Spence were built at the Stadiou Street in Athens. In December 1991 the government privatised the bank, which has grown in size and scope since then.

Expansion

In 1995 the Group established Piraeus Bank Romania with 160 branches and one year later Tirana Bank, the first privately owned banking institution in Albania with 56 branches. In 1999 with its acquisition of Xiosbank, PB took over Xios's branch in Sofia, Bulgaria; it has now some 83 branches in the country. PB also acquired the small New York-based Marathon National Bank and Interbank N.Y; it merged Interbank into Marathon Bank.

In 1998 the bank absorbed the Greek branch networks of Chase Manhattan Bank, Crédit Lyonnais, and acquired controlling interest of Macedonia-Thrace Bank. A year later it added in the activities of National Westminster Bank and acquired Xiosbank (Bank of Chios) which it totally absorbed along with Macedonia-Thrace Bank. In 2002 Piraeus Bank signed a strategic alliance with ING Group (bancassurance). In 2005 it acquired the Bulgarian Eurobank, Atlas Bank in Serbia, Egyptian Commercial Bank in Egypt. In 2007 it expanded in Ukraine by acquiring the International Commerce Bank (renamed as Piraeus Bank ICB) and established Piraeus Bank Cyprus with the acquisition of the Arab Bank Cypriot.

In 2002 the bank absorbed 58% of ETBA Bank (Hellenic Industrial Development Bank). PB also started a strategic alliance with ING Group, which took a 5% stake in the Piraeus Bank. In 2006 the PB sold back to ING its stake in a jointly-owned mutual funds company. Cooperation continues via the bank-assurance company ING-PIRAEUS.

In 2005 Piraeus Bank acquired the Belgrade-based Atlas banka in Serbia (today Piraeus Bank Beograd with 42 branches), and the Egyptian Commercial Bank (today Piraeus Bank Egypt with 43).

In 2007 PB purchased the Cyprus arm of Arab Bank and renamed it Piraeus Bank (Cyprus).^[11] On 13 September 2007 Piraeus Bank completed its acquisition of 99.6% of the share capital of International Commercial Bank in Ukraine, today Piraeus ICB.

In June 2012 PB signed an agreement with Investors Bancorp Inc, to transfer PB's shareholding in Marathon Banking Corporation in New York City, to Investors Bancorp. PB used the money it received for Marathon to finance the take over of the Greek banks Geniki Bank and healthy parts of ATEbank.

In 2012 Piraeus Bank acquired the so-called 'good' Agricultural Bank (selected assets and liabilities) gaining a leading position in the Greek banking sector. Three months later it acquired Societe Generale's Geniki Bank.

On 26 March 2013 it took over the Greek branches of Bank of Cyprus, the Greek branches of Hellenic Bank and CPB Bank. Later in 2013 it took over Millennium Bank.

At the end of June 2013 Piraeus Bank Group had an international presence consisting of 438 branches focusing in Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.^[12]

Other activities

Piraeus Bank reached an agreement in 2007 to acquire 100% of Avis Rent-A-Car Hellas for €25.5 mln. Brokers said that this purchase will create synergies for the group leasing subsidiary, Piraeus Leasing, by adding a car fleet valued at €200 mln to its long-term leasing business.

The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation carries out culture-related activities of the bank, which are part of the corporate social responsibility. The historical archive is curated by the foundation. In 2012 the foundation won the European Europa-Nostra-Award.

Awards

• 2004 The European banking technology award
• 2008, 2009 gold award by the international Corporate Responsibility Index (CRI)
• 2012 Double STP Excellence Award

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piraeus Bank.

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