Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd (Greek ：Ελληνική Τράπεζα Δημόσια Εταιρία Λτδ）（ CSE: HB) is a bank in Cyprus. It has been designated as a significant institution since the European Banking Regulation came into force at the end of 2014 and is therefore directly supervised by the European Central Bank.

History

The bank was established in 1976 with technical assistance from Bank of America and acquired the local business of Barclays in 1996. The main shareholder (29%) has traditionally and for many years been the Church of Cyprus. Between November 2013 and December 2014, the church's shareholding ratio was reduced to 0.3%, making it a minority shareholder. Previously, Greek bank Eurobank Ergasias held 55.48%, and Cyprus's Demetra Holdings Plc held 21%. (Logicom Plc, owner of Demetra Holdings Plc, also holds a direct stake of 4% in the bank.) The bank workers' union ETYK public welfare fund, provident fund and medical fund together held 11.6%, but none of the three funds held qualified shares. The board of directors consists of representatives of the first two shareholders.

In January 2011, Bank of Greece started operating in Russia, but later sold its Russian operations in 2014. The bank also has representative offices in Kiev (Ukraine), St. Petersburg and Moscow (Russia), as well as in South Africa. It also opened representative offices in Athens, Greece, in 2017.

On March 25, 2013, Bank of Greece sold its Greek branch to Piraeus Bank. As of March 27, 2013, former Bank of Greece customers can use ATM machines at all Piraeus Banking Group banks (Piraeus Bank and ATEbank, Geniki Bank and the former Bank of Cyprus and CPB Banking Network) free of charge. In mid-July 2013, the process of merging the former Hellenic Bank Network business in Greece into Piraeus Bank was completed. Subsequently, the vast majority of the former Hellenic Bank branches were closed and its personnel laid off.

In 2015, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development acquired a 5.4% stake in Hellenic Bank.

In 2016, Hellenic Bank won the award for Best Digital Bank in Cyprus from Global Finance Magazine for the third consecutive year. and was upgraded to B grade by Fitch.

In July 2017, Bank of Greece sold a 51% stake in its Arrears Management division (2.30 billion euros of bad risk exposure and 150 million euros of property) to Czech specialist APS Holdings a.s and created a new company in which it holds a 49% minority stake: APS Debt Servicing Cyprus Ltd.

In July 2018, Bank of Greece acquired the loans and deposits of Cyprus Cooperative Bank, comprising 75 branches and 1,100 employees, raising new capital of 150 million euros, making it the second largest bank in Cyprus with a 31% share of the Cyprus deposit market and 20% of the loan market. Youssef Nasr became Chairperson of the Board.

In August 2019, Evripides Polycarpou became Chairperson of the Board. In July 2021, Oliver Gatzke, a German, became CEO.

On November 30, 2022, Wargaming Group Limited announced an agreement to sell 13.41% of Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd (55,337,721 shares) to Eurobank at a consideration of 70 million euros. If the agreement is passed by the regulator in Frankfurt, Eurobank will become a major shareholder in the bank with 26.1% ownership.

In early January 2023, Eurobank announced the acquisition of 3.2% shares (13,230,000 shares) in Hellenic Bank Public Company Limited from a fund managed by Senvest Management LLC for a consideration of 16.74 million euros, thereby increasing the total holding to 29.2%.

Following the completion of the Starlight project, the bank's non-performing loans declined. The project is a transaction package that includes the securitization of non-performing loans (Starlight Portfolio) in the amount of approximately 1.40 billion euros on December 31, 2022, and the sale of the bank's platform, APS Debt Servicer. APS was sold to Themis Portfolio Management Ltd., an indirect subsidiary of Oxalis Holding S.A.R.L., which is managed and advised by PIMCO. The bank's non-performing loan ratio (excluding non-performing loans covered by the Asset Protection Scheme (APP)) fell from 13.5% to 3.6%. In June 2023, Christos Themistocleous became interim chairperson. In August 2023, Antonis Rouvas became interim CEO. In January 2024, Greek banker Petros Christodoulou was approved as chairperson by the European Central Bank. Christos Themistocleous resumed his role as vice chairperson.