History
The Alpha Bank Group is one of the leading Groups of the financial sector in Greece, with a strong presence in the Greek and international banking market. The Group offers a wide range of high-quality financial products and services, including retail banking, SMEs and corporate banking, asset management and private banking, the distribution of insurance products, investment banking, brokerage and real estate management. It has an active presence in Cyprus, Romania, Albania and Great Britain and maintains a wide network of correspondents with foreign and domestic credit institutions.
Alpha Bank was founded in 1879 by John F. Costopoulos, when he established a commercial firm in the city of Kalamata.
In 1918 the banking department of the "J.F. Costopoulos" firm was renamed "Bank of Kalamata".
In 1924 the Bank's headquarters were moved to Athens, and it was renamed to "Banque de Credit Commercial Hellenique".
In 1947 the name was changed to "Commercial Credit Bank", then to "Credit Bank" in 1972 and finally to "Alpha Credit Bank" in March 1994.
In 1999 the Bank acquired 51% of the shares of the Ionian Bank and by April 11, 2000, the merger of the Ionian Bank was approved through absorption by Alpha Credit Bank.
The name of the enlarged, new Bank, resulting from this merger is Alpha Bank.
On October 16, 2012, Alpha Bank A.E. entered into a contract with Credit Agricole S.A. for the acquisition from the latter of shares in Emporiki Bank S.A. representing the entire share capital.
On February 1, 2013, pursuant to the acquisition agreement and the approvals by the Greek and Cypriot Central Banks and anti-trust authorities, the entire share capital of Emporiki has been transferred to Alpha Bank by Credit Agricole.
On June 28, 2013, the legal merger was concluded, through the absorption of Emporiki Bank by Alpha Bank and an important step toward the two Banks' full operational integration was taken.
The integrated Alpha Bank, the Bank that inspires confidence and constitutes a consistent point of reference in the Greek banking system, is one of the largest banks of the private sector, with a wide Network of over 1,200 service points in Greece and one of the highest capital adequacy ratios in Europe.
For more information on the Group’s history and evolution, click here.