Galery

1

It was officially announced that the former governor of the Bank of Greece, Georgios Provopoulos joins the management of the Eurobank holding.

Provopoulos assumes the duties of board chairman of the holding's subsidiary bank in Bulgaria - Eurobank Bulgaria (Postbank). This will take place on 15 October, after the decision is approved by the Bulgarian supervisory authority.

In his greeting, Eurobank holding's board chairman, Nikolaos Karamouzis, described Mr Provopoulos' credentials this way: "His long-lasting presence in the industry, his experience and profound knowledge of the issues related to the work of lenders, especially in matters of the system's international supervision, will contribute significantly to the development of our banking group outside Greece. His experience accumulated during a successful management spell throughout the most critical period of the Greek banking system is extremely valuable. In parallel, his contribution to maintaining the stability of Greek banks, and especially his work in safeguarding deposits, were decisive. We welcome Mr. Provopoulos to our holding and wish him success in his new duties."

Eurobank's CEO, Fokion Karavias, also emphasised Provopoulos' professional qualities and expressed confidence that he will give a strong push to the development of the bank's activities in Bulgaria.

Karavias and his deputy in charge of international activities of the holding, Stavros Ioannou, already met with the Bulgarian National Bank's new governor, Dimitar Radev, and informed him of the decision. They also discussed a number of subjects, e.g. the development of the banking sector in Bulgaria, as well as issues related to progress on the recent agreement for the buy-out of Alpha Bank's Bulgarian network by Post Bank.

Georgios Provopoulos was governor of the Bank of Greece from June 2008 until June 2014; he is internationally regarded as one of the most experienced bank executives. He is not only well aware of the systems and faces in Frankfurt and Brussels, but is renowned for his top competence in commercial bank management.

Since 1979, Provopoulos has been teaching finance at the University of Athens, and in 1990-1993 he was deputy governor of the Bank of Greece. He also chaired the financial experts' council of the economic ministry in 1989-1990.

From 1994 to 2004, Provopoulos was a financial advisor at Alpha Bank, then took over Emporiki Bank. Once the latter was sold to the French group Credit Agricole, Provopoulos went to Piraeus Bank, to assume control of the Bank of Greece in 2008.

Postbank (legally named Eurobank EFG Bulgaria AD) is a Bulgarian institution, owned by the Greek EFG Eurobank Ergasias since 1998. The bank's first branch opened in 1991 in Sofia. In June 2015, Postbank engulfed the Greek Alpha Bank's branches in Bulgaria and became the fourth largest lender in the country. Currently, it has more than 200 branches across the country, and assets of over 6.3 billion lev.