Bank of Crete
Two banks have borne the name Bank of Crete (Τράπεζα Κρήτης). The first functioned between 1898 and 1918, and the second functioned from 1980 to 1999.
The original Bank of Crete (1898–1919)
Following the departure of the Ottoman forces in December 1898, the government of the autonomous Cretan State, under Eleftherios Venizelos, established the Bank of Crete (Banque du Crète) with the assistance of the National Bank of Greece and Hambros Brothers. In addition to the functions of commercial and mortgage banking, the bank received the exclusive privilege, for thirty years, of issuing banknotes in the island of Crete. The National Bank of Greece wholly acquired, and subsumed the Bank of Crete in 1919.
The Bank of Crete (1980–1999)
George Koskotas bought the new established Bank of Crete in 1984. At its height, the bank operated some 86 branches in all major Greek cities and a representative office in London. Koskotas and his bank were involved in a major corruption scandal in Greece in the late 1980s.[1]
Specifically in November 1988, a shortfall of US$132 million was discovered in the Bank of Crete some months after bank chairman Koskotas, a Greek-American millionaire entrepreneur under investigation for large-scale financial crime, had fled the country. In the months that followed, alleged connections between Koskotas and the PASOK government, and even with prime minister Andreas Papandreou himself, brought the resignations of several ministers and demands for a vote of no confidence in the government. Papandreou was eventually acquitted of criminal charges relating to the scandal in 1992.[2]
The Bank of Crete was sold to the Eurobank Ergasias in a privatization in 1999.
References
- ↑ Stephen, Labaton (November 29, 1988). "Judge Freezes the U.S. Assets of a Fugitive Greek Banker". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-25.
- ↑ Simons, Marlise (17 January 1992). "Greek Ex-Premier Not Guilty in Bank Scandal". The New York Times. p. 5. Retrieved 1 June 2010.