Emporiki Bank
Encyclopedia
The Emporiki Bank is a Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 bank. Its headquarters is in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, and the bank has 370 branches across Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. The bank has most of its subsidiaries in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

.It also has subsidiaries in Albania, Romania and Bulgaria, and a branch in London that also manages a financing subsidiary. The bank is one of the 500 largest banks in the world.

In August, 2006, the French bank Crédit Agricole
Crédit Agricole
Crédit Agricole S.A. is the largest retail banking group in France, second largest in Europe and the eighth largest in the world by Tier 1 capital according to The Banker magazine. It is also part of the CAC 40 stock market index....

, acquired 67% of its capital and now controls Emporiki.

History

The Commercial Bank of Greece (CBG) was established in 1907 and two years later listed on the stock exchange. After World War I, in 1922, CBG established and took a major position in Commercial Bank of the Near East (CBNE)in London with CBG as a major shareholder. CBG expanded its international operations further by opening a branch in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 in 925, and another one in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 later.

After the Suez Canal invasion, Egypt nationalizes the operations of British and French banks. To avoid nationalization, in 1957 Commercial Bank of the Near East, which was incorporated in London, transferred its branches in Egypt to Commercial Bank of Greece. This proved to be of only temporary help as in 1960 the Egyptian government nationalize all banks in Egypt, including CBG’s branches in Cairo and Alexandria.

At the same time, i.e., in 1959, CBG acquired the Greek operations of Ionian Bank
Ionian Bank
The Ionian Bank was a British overseas bank that investors established in 1839 to operate in the Ionian Isles, which was then a British Protectorate. The bank later expanded in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. After losing its branches in Egypt to nationalization, IB retreated from the...

, including its ownership of Popular Bank. CBG continued to operate the bank separately, and later renamed it Ionian and Popular Bank of Greece. CBG also acquired a major shareholding in Banque du Piree (Piraeus Bank
Piraeus Bank
Piraeus Bank Group is a Greek bank founded in 1916 that went through a period of state ownership and management before it was privatised in December 1991. Since then, it has continuously grown in size and activities...

), which had been established in 1916. CBG continued to grow in Greece via acquisition when in it acquired a major share holding (29% in 1995) in Bank of Attica, which had been established in 1925.

In 1965, CBG entered the European Common Market when it created Griechische Handelsbank in Frankfurt am Main. Later this subsidiary changed its name to Commercial Bank of Greece (Germany).

Twenty-five years later, in 1990, CBG renamed its subsidiary in London, CBNE, Commercial Bank of London.

In 1994 CBG finally opened its first branch in Nicosia
Nicosia
Nicosia from , known locally as Lefkosia , is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line...

 , Cyprus. The next year CBG’s International Banking Unit in Limassol
Limassol
Limassol is the second-largest city in Cyprus, with a population of 228,000 . It is the largest city in geographical size, and the biggest municipality on the island. The city is located on Akrotiri Bay, on the island's southern coast and it is the capital of Limassol District.Limassol is the...

 , Cyprus commenced operations. CBG also started to expand in the former Communist countries. First, it became a strategic investor in Bulgarian Investment Bank. However, CBG sold Commercial Bank of London to Alpha Credit Bank (now Alpha Bank
Alpha Bank
Alpha Bank is the second largest bank in Greece with 450 branches throughout the country. It also has a subsidiary and branch in London, and branches and subsidiaries throughout the Balkans . Founded in 1879, it has been controlled by the Costopoulos family since the very beginning...

), which renamed it Alpha Bank London.

In 1996 Bulgarian Investment Bank became International Commercial Bank (Bulgaria). CBG owned 91%, directly and indirectly, of the bank. CBG also established a wholly owned subsidiary, International Commercial Black Sea Bank (Romania), which later became Commercial Bank of Greece (Romania). CBG establishes International Commercial Black Sea Bank (Georgia) together with the EBRD and United Georgian Bank. (United Georgian Bank was the result of the merger of three banks: Industrial Bank, Eximbank and New Georgian Bank – formerly Savings Bank.)

While it was expanding internationally, CBG started to rationalize its Greek holding. Thus in 1997 CBG reduced its position in Bank of Attica to 18%. More importantly, two years later it sold its 51% stake in Ionian Bank to Alpha Credit Bank. In 2001, CBG incorporated Commercial Bank of Greece (Cyprus), of which it owned 75%, and to which it contributed its four branches in Cyprus and its International Banking Unit there. At some point, Commercial Bank of Greece rebranded all its operations as Emporiki Bank.

CBG's second move into the former Communist bloc occurred in 1998 when it established International Commercial Bank (Moldova), and Commercial Bank of Greece (Armenia). The next year CBG established a representative office in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

, and Intercommercial Bank (Albania) SA, which started operating in 2000. In 2000, CBG acquired Romanian International Commercial Black Sea Bank and 35% of FinCom Bank in Moldova. However, in 2002, CBG started to undo its previous international expansion outside the Greek-speaking parts of the Mediterranean. First it disposed of its subsidiaries in Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

, Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 and Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

. Then in 2005, Emporiki Bank disposed of its German subsidiary.

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