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 Head office in Athens | |
| Headquarters | Athens,Greece |
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| Coordinates | 37°58′43″N23°44′00″E / 37.978611°N 23.733333°E /37.978611; 23.733333 |
| Established | 14 May 1928; 97 years ago (1928-05-14) |
| Ownership | e-E.F.K.A. Electronic National Social Security Entity (12.44%) Hellenic Public Sector (8.93%)[1] |
| Governor | Yannis Stournaras |
| Central bank of | Greece |
| Reserves | 1 500 million USD[2] |
| Succeeded by | European Central Bank (2001)1 |
| Website | www |
| 1 The Bank of Greece still exists but many functions have been taken over by the ECB. | |
| Economy of Greece |
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| Overview |
| History |
| Related |
TheBank of Greece (Greek:Τράπεζα της ΕλλάδοςTrapeza tis Ellados,abbr.ΤτΕ) is thenational central bank forGreece within theEurosystem. It was the Greekcentral bank from 1927 to 2000, issuing thedrachma.
Unusually among contemporary central banks, the Bank of Greece still has private shareholders and its stock is listed on theAthens Exchange.[3]
In addition to its monetary role, the Bank of Greece is also afinancial supervisory authority. In that capacity, it increasingly implements policies set at theEuropean Union level. It is the national competent authority for Greece withinEuropean Banking Supervision.[4] It is a voting member of the respective Boards of Supervisors of theEuropean Banking Authority (EBA)[5] andEuropean Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA).[6] It is Greece's designatedNational Resolution Authority and plenary session member of theSingle Resolution Board (SRB).[7] It provides the permanent single common representative for Greece in the Supervisory composition of the General Board of theAnti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA).[8] It is also a member of theEuropean Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).[9]
The Bank of Greece was established by Law 3424/7 December 1927, under the conditions of the stabilization loan coordinated by theEconomic and Financial Organization of theLeague of Nations,[10] and its operations started officially in 1928. The shares of the Bank of Greece are registered and have been listed on theAthens Exchange since June 12, 1930.[11]
During theAxis occupation of Greece (1941–44), Governor Kyriakos Varvaresos and Deputy Governor Georgios Mantzavinos followed theGreek government in exile toLondon. Thecollaborationist 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 theeuro) the bank was responsible for the former national currency, thedrachma. Greece had failed to meet the membership criteria and was excluded from participatingwhen the euro was launched on 1 January 1999. Use of physical drachma notes and coinscontinued until 31 December 2001, as denominations of the euro.
The bank has a staff of more than 1,800employees. Its primary objective is to ensureprice stability in Greece. It also supervises the private banks and acts as a treasurer and fiscal agent for theGreek 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.
ItsEuro banknotes printer identification code isY.[12] The Bank of Greece also sellsgold sovereigns.
The Bank of Greece is a joint-stock company with special privileges, special restrictions, and duties.[13] It is prohibited from operating as a commercial bank.
The percentage of shares under Greek state ownership cannot exceed 35 percent[14] (initially this limit was 10 percent[15]). 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 theNational 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.
The chief officer of the Bank of Greece is the Governor (Greek:διοικητής,IPA:[ðiiciˈtis]), a governmental appointee.[16]
| Officeholder | Entered office | Left office | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandros Diomidis | April 21, 1928 | September 29, 1931 | Prime Minister 1949–50 |
| Emmanouil Tsouderos | October 31, 1931 | August 13, 1935 | First term |
| Emmanouil Tsouderos | March 20, 1936 | July 10, 1939 | Second term; Prime Minister 1941–44 (in exile) |
| Ioannis Drosopoulos | July 10, 1939 | July 28, 1939 | |
| Kyriakos Varvaresos | August 4, 1939 | February 2, 1946 | |
| Xenophon Zolotas | October 12, 1944 | January 8, 1945 | First term; co-Governor |
| Georgios Mantzavinos | February 11, 1946 | February 2, 1955 | |
| Xenophon Zolotas | February 5, 1955 | August 7, 1967 | Second term |
| Dimitrios Galanis | August 7, 1967 | May 4, 1973 | |
| Konstantinos Papagiannis | May 7, 1973 | August 9, 1974 | |
| Panagis Papaligouras [el] | August 9, 1974 | October 24, 1974 | |
| Xenophon Zolotas | November 26, 1974 | November 3, 1981 | Third term; Prime Minister 1989–90 |
| Gerasimos Arsenis | November 3, 1981 | February 20, 1984 | |
| Dimitrios Chalikias | February 20, 1984 | February 20, 1992 | |
| Efthymios Christodoulou | February 20, 1992 | December 1, 1993 | |
| Ioannis Boutos | December 1, 1993 | October 26, 1994 | |
| Lucas Papademos | October 26, 1994 | June 14, 2002 | Prime Minister 2011–12 |
| Nikolaos Garganas | June 14, 2002 | June 14, 2008 | Greek Financial Audit, 2004 |
| Georgios Provopoulos | June 20, 2008 | June 20, 2014 | Greek government-debt crisis;European debt crisis |
| Yannis Stournaras | 20 June 2014 | Incumbent | Greek government-debt crisis;European debt crisis |
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.[17]
The Bank of Greece's central building onPanepistimiou Street was designed in 1933 by a team of architects led by Nikolaos Zoumpoulidis, Kimon Laskaris, and Konstantinos Papadakis and inaugurated in 1938.[18] It was extended in the 1970s to occupy the entire block.[19]
The building inThessaloniki, on the northern corner ofEleftherias Square, was designed in 1925 by Aristomenis Valvis and N. Mitsakis for theNational 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.[20]
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 theEuropean banking crisis of 1931. For that, it adopted a generally neoclassical design style in the 1930s for the branches inChania,Larissa,Mytilene,Samos,Serres,Tripoli andVolos, some of which were only completed afterWorld War II. The Bank of Greece later completed new branch buildings inHeraklion,Ioannina andKomotini in the 1968s,Alexandroupolis in 2000, andPatras in 2001. InKalamata,Kavala andLamia, it purchased pre-existing buildings. The branch building inRhodes was designed in Rome for theBank of Italy underItalian rule of the Dodecanese, taken over by the Greek government in 1945, and transferred to the Bank of Greece in 1952.[21]
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