National Bank of Greece Appoints New Management Team
1:39 pm ET March 23, 2015 (Dow Jones) Print
By Nektaria Stamouli
ATHENS-- National Bank of Greece SA, Greece's largest lender by assets, announced changes to its top management on Monday, after the lender's chairman and chief executive officer resigned.
Former minister Louka Katseli was named as new chairman, replacing George Zanias, the company said in a statement. Banker Leonidas Fragiadakis was named chief executive officer, succeeding Alexandros Tourkolias.
The move comes two months after the Syriza-led government came to power. Board changes at National Bank of Greece often happen after elections. Last month, Greece's fourth largest lender by assets, Eurobank Ergasias, also announced board changes.
For the three months to December, National bank of Greece said its net loss totaled EUR1.11 billion ($1.2 billion), compared with a net profit of EUR30 million in the third quarter, due to one-off charges and higher loan provisions to boost its coverage ratio.
For the full year 2014, the bank reported a net profit of EUR66 million, down from a profit of EUR809 million a year earlier.
The bank said it had increasingly relied on funding from the European Central Bank, amid continuing deposit outflows stemming from the country's political and economic uncertainty.
The lender's total exposure to the Eurosystem reached EUR23 billion by mid-March, of which EUR13.3 billion was drawn from the emergency funding.
After six years of recession, Greece's financial crisis and an unprecedented sovereign debt restructuring, Greek banks are struggling to nurse their balance sheets back to health.
Write to Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com
