The Bank of Greece (Greek: Τράπεζα της ΕλλάδοςTrapeza tis Ellados, abbr.ΤτΕ) is the Greek member of the Eurosystem and has been the monetary authority for Greece from 1927 to 2000, issuing the drachma. Since 2014, it has also been Greece's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision.[3]
Unlike most contemporary central banks, the Bank of Greece still has private shareholders and its stock is listed on the Athens Exchange.[4]
History
The Bank of Greece was established by Law 3424/7 December 1927, under the conditions of the stabilization loan coordinated by the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations,[5] and its operations started officially in 1928. The shares of the Bank of Greece are registered and have been listed on the Athens Exchange since June 12, 1930.[6]
During the Axis occupation of Greece (1941–44), Governor Kyriakos Varvaresos and Deputy Governor Georgios Mantzavinos followed the Greek government in exile to London. The collaborationist governments in Greece fired Varvaresos and Mantzavinos in 1941 and appointed first Miltiadis Negrepontis as Governing Counsellor (April 24, 1941 – July 3, 1941), then Dimitrios Santis as Governor (July 3, 1941 – January 20, 1943) and Andreas Papadimitriou as Deputy Governor (July 3, 1941 – November 18, 1941), and finally Theodoros Tourkovasilis as Governor (April 19, 1943 – April 13, 1944) and Spyridon Hatzikyriakos as Deputy Governor (April 5, 1943 – October 5, 1944). After the liberation, all dismissals and appointments by occupation-era governments concerning members of the administration of the Bank of Greece were declared null and void.
Until January 2001 (when Greece adopted the euro) the bank was responsible for the former national currency, the drachma. Greece had failed to meet the membership criteria and was excluded from participating when the euro was launched on 1 January 1999. Use of physical drachma notes and coins continued until 31 December 2001, as denominations of the euro.
Operations
The bank has a staff of more than 1,800 employees. Its primary objective is to ensure price stability in Greece. It also supervises the private banks and acts as a treasurer and fiscal agent for the Greek government. Since law 3867/2010 was passed the Bank of Greece is also responsible for supervising private insurance companies, merging with the Committee for the Supervision of Insurance Companies established by law 3229/2004.
The Bank of Greece is a joint-stock company with special privileges, special restrictions, and duties.[8] It is prohibited from operating as a commercial bank.
The percentage of shares under Greek state ownership cannot exceed 35 percent[9] (initially this limit was 10 percent[10]). As of early 2024, the government share was slightly over 21 percent, of which 8.9 percent directly held by the Greek state and 12.4 percent through the National Social Security Fund [el]. The rest of the bank's equity was widely dispersed, with no single shareholder known to hold more than 1 percent.
Leadership
Alexandros Diomidis (1875-1950) was the first governor of the Bank of Greece
Governors
The chief officer of the Bank of Greece is the Governor (Greek: διοικητής, IPA:[ðiiciˈtis]), a governmental appointee.[11]
The Deputy Governor (Greek: υποδιοικητής, romanized: ypodioikētés) is the Bank's second-in-line officer. Traditionally the Deputy Governors' main remit is administration, whereas Governors supervise monetary policy at large.[12]
The Bank of Greece's central building on Panepistimiou Street was designed in 1933 by a team of architects led by Nikolaos Zoumpoulidis, Kimon Laskaris, and Konstantinos Papadakis and inaugurated in 1938.[13] It was extended in the 1970s to occupy the entire block.[14]
The building in Thessaloniki, on the northern corner of Eleftherias Square, was designed in 1925 by Aristomenis Valvis and N. Mitsakis for the National Bank of Greece. With the Bank of Greece being established in the course of its construction, it was remodeled to accommodate both institutions and completed in 1933. Since then, it has been continuously shared by the two, with respective entrances on opposite ends of the building.[15]
The bank also erected branch buildings in a number of other Greek cities, aimed at providing services but also to project a sense of stability following the turmoil of the European banking crisis of 1931. For that, it adopted a generally neoclassical design style in the 1930s for the branches in Chania, Larissa, Mytilene, Samos, Serres, Tripoli and Volos, some of which were only completed after World War II. The Bank of Greece later completed new branch buildings in Heraklion, Ioannina and Komotini in the 1968s, Alexandroupolis in 2000, and Patras in 2001. In Kalamata, Kavala and Lamia, it purchased pre-existing buildings. The branch building in Rhodes was designed in Rome for the Bank of Italy under Italian rule of the Dodecanese, taken over by the Greek government in 1945, and transferred to the Bank of Greece in 1952.[16]
1970s extension of the head office building on Stadiou Street in Athens
Branch building in Lamia, erected in 1927 and acquired by the Bank of Greece in 1940
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