Eurobank is a financial organisation that operates in Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Bulgaria and the UK. As of December 2018, the Eurobank Group counts, €58 billion in assets, 653 customer service locations in Greece and abroad, and 13,162 employees.[12]
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| Eurobank Holdings[1] | |
Native name | Eurobank Ergasias Υπηρεσιών και Συμμετοχών Α.Ε.[1] |
| Formerly |
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| Company type | Public |
| Athex: EUROB | |
| ISIN | GRS323003012[4] |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 19 March 1924; 100 years ago (1924-03-19)[1]inAthens, Greece[2] |
| Founder | Vasilios Karavasilis[2] |
| Headquarters |
Athens
,
Greece[1]
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Number of locations | 616 branches[5] (2022) |
Area served |
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Key people |
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| Services |
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| Revenue |
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| Total assets |
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| Total equity |
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| Owner |
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Number of employees | 11,328[8] |
| Subsidiaries |
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| Capital ratio | 15.2%[8] |
| Website | eurobankholdings |
Eurobank has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.[13][14]
The bank was incorporated in 1924 as “V. Karavasilis Tobacco Company and Bank SA”. In 1937 it was renamed “Karavasilis Bank SA” and in 1952 “Professional Credit Bank SA”. In 1964 it was acquired by the National Bank of Greece, who renamed it Bank of Athens in 1992.[2]
The Euromerchant Bank SA (Ευρωεπενδυτική Τράπεζα ΑΕ, lit. transl. euro-investment bank) was founded in 1990. It took over 75% of EFG Private Bank (Luxembourg) S.A.'s operations in 1994. In 1997 it was renamed EFG Eurobank SA and acquired Interbank Greece SA and the branch network of Crédit Lyonnais Grèce SA. In February 1999 EFG Eurobank SA merged with Cretabank SA.[3][15]
In March 1999, Bank of Athens merged with EFG Eurobank SA.[3][16][17] In 2000 the bank changed its name to EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA after taking over the renowned Ergasias Bank.[3] In 2002 it acquired Telesis Investment Bank, followed by UnitBank in 2003.[18] A financial products subsidiary was founded in 2007 (49.9% owned by employees).
In 2012, the bank sold 70% of the Polish branches called PolbanktoRaiffeisen Bank International.[3]
In 2012, the Spiros Latsis associated Eurobank EFG merger with Giannis Kostopoulos's (Greek: Γιάννης Κωστόπουλος) Alpha Bank was cancelled because of the Greek debt crisis.[19] The proposed merger included a capital boost from Qatar Investment Authority of 500 million euro convertible bond and a 1.25 billion euro rights issue which would have Qatar Investment Authority a major shareholder and from Southeast Europe's biggest bank with assets of 150 billion euros and 80 billion euros of deposits.[20]
After the Greek financial crisis and bailouts of Greek banks in 2012, Swiss-Luxembourg based EFG Group—the then owner of Eurobank—was told to separate the Greek bank from the rest of its business. In July of that year Eurobank was deconsolidated from the group and its shares sold to the Greek Latsis family and it was renamed Eurobank Ergasias.[21]
In January 2013, the National Bank of Greece made an offer, which ultimately did not go through, to take over Eurobank Ergasias; 64,000 Eurobank shareholders and the Greek capital market commission agreed.[22] Later in 2013 Eurobank acquired New TT Hellenic Postbank and New Proton Bank.[18][3]
The bank was the third largest in Greece by total asset by total loans and total deposits, and the fourth by market capitalisation—as at December 2014.
Since 1 February 2015, the chairman and non-executive director of Eurobank Ergasias has been Nikolaos Karamouzis; Fokion Karavias has been the CEO and executive director since the same day.[23] Canadian fund Fairfax Financial are major shareholders, with an 18.2% stake in 2018, that was increased after the takeover of Grivalia Properties until 32.9%.[24]
In the end of year 2015 results, total net loans were €39.9 billion (non performing 43.8%, of which provisions were at 53.3%), customer deposits €31.4 billion, and central bank funding was €24.3 billion.[citation needed]
At the end of 2020, the bad loans of the group reached an amount of €5.7 billion. In March 2020, Eurobank announced a project for reducing its nonperforming loans index from 14% to 9%.[25]
In March 2023, the Greek bank Eurobank sold its Serbian unit to AIK Banka for €280 million, becoming Serbia's second-largest financial conglomerate.[26]
Eurobank Direktna (Eurobank Direktna akcionarsko društvo Beograd) is a bank founded in 1997, with headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia.[31] In March 2003, Eurobank acquired 68% of Postbanka AD Beograd and eventually renamed it EFG Eurobank AD Beograd.[32] This was followed by the merger with Nacionalna štedionica Banka. In October 2006, the bank began operating under a single brand, name and visual identity.[33][34] In 2016, the bank had €1.337 billion in assets and revenue of €18.42 million.[33] In December 2021, the bank merged with Direktna Banka and was renamed to Eurobank Direktna.[35] In November 2023, Serbian AIK Banka bought the majority of shares of the bank, for a total of 280 million euros.[36][37]
