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The changes in Greek banks’ top management, which began after the parliamentary elections on 25 January, are continuing. Today, Alexandros Andonopoulos occupied the post of Managing Director of Attica bank. The meeting of the board of the financial institution decided to merge the positions of Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director. Until today, Andonopoulos had held the post of Deputy Managing Director, and since 2010, he has been a board member. In addition, in the period March 2010-January 2014, he chaired the board of the state fund for deposits and loans.

According to his biographical reference, Alexandros Andonopoulos has extensive experience in the financial sector. Currently he is a board member of the Athens Stock Exchange and he has also worked at the Bank of Cyprus and Probank.

Former Managing Director of Attica bank Gikas Manalis is appointed non-executive board member of the bank.

A change in the top management of the National Bank of Greece is expected too, the most probable candidate to replace George Zanias as president of the bank being Louka Katseli - former Minister of Economy in the government of George Papandreou, who today is close to the leadership of SYRIZA .

Although her name "leaked out" more than 10 days ago, so far there has been no information on when the change in the management of the leading Greek bank will take place. According to the Greek economic newspaper Kerdos, the reason for this is a letter from the Single Supervisory Mechanism of the European Central Bank stating that it has to approve in advance any changes in the banks’ management.

This means that the candidates to head the Greek financial institutions must properly pass a test to establish their abilities in Frankfurt. The procedure in question was followed prior to the appointment of Nikolaos Karamouzis and Phocion Karavias heads of Eurobank.

In addition to Louka Katseli, applicant for Managing Director of the National Bank of Greece George Michelis will be subject to testing too. According to Kerdos, the procedure is already triggered and the expectations are that the changes in the Bank's management will be decided at the governing council meeting on Thursday.

A few days ago, Louka Katseli warned that if the new Greek cabinet did not reach an agreement with the lenders of Greece, there would be a restriction on the movement of capital. In particular, she said, "This could happen in the case of a collision with the lenders this week, which could be the result of unsuccessful actions on the part of either of the negotiating sides." Then she expressed hope that "logic will prevail" during the negotiations and that they would not lead to such decisions.

The Greek media recall that Katseli has extensive experience and knowledge in the financial sector. It is noteworthy that she is the author of the slogan "There is money," with which George Papandreou and PASOK won the parliamentary elections in October 2009.