The neoclassical building of EFG Eurobank in Heraklion, Crete, which houses the Bank’s branch office and local central units, was inaugurated on Friday, June 4, 2005, by the Mayor of Heraklion, Mr. Yannis Kourakis and the Managing Director of EFG Eurobank, Mr. Nicholas Nanopoulos, in the presence of the Bank’s Chairman, Mr. Xenophon Nickitas and the Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Byron Ballis.
The neoclassical building of EFG Eurobank in Heraklion, Crete, which houses the Bank’s branch office and local central units, was inaugurated on Friday, June 4, 2005, by the Mayor of Heraklion, Mr. Yannis Kourakis and the Managing Director of EFG Eurobank, Mr. Nicholas Nanopoulos, in the presence of the Bank’s Chairman, Mr. Xenophon Nickitas and the Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Byron Ballis. The building, situated at the corner of the streets Martyron 25 Avgoustou and Koroneou, was built at the beginning of the 20th century by architect Kyriakos and for its refurbishment EFG Eurobank disposed of significant funding in the context of the Bank’s strategy to contribute to the promotion of Greek cultural history.
At the inauguration ceremony, present were also, among others, the Regional Commissioner for Crete, Mr. Serafim Tsokas, the Regional Governor of Heraklion, Mr. Dimitirs Sarris, the MPs Mr. Emmanuel Stratakis and Ms. Evangelia Schinaraki, members of the business community and a group of EFG Eurobank executives. During his speech, the Mayor of Heraklion expressed his thanks to the Bank for its contribution beyond the financial sector, in other areas such as in the promotion of our national heritage. EFG Eurobank Managing Director referred to the Bank’s activities, not only in economy but also in the fields of Culture, Education and Sports.
During the visit, the Bank’s Management hosted a lunch for about 60 business people from Crete who operate in the sectors of tourism, shipping, construction, industry and trade. On the occasion, it was outlined the Bank’s strategy in support of entrepreneurship that allows EFG Eurobank to differentiate itself from its competitors.
In his speech, Mr. Nicholas Nanopoulos, EFG Eurobank’s Managing Director, stressed that Crete is an area with significant potential that presents very important development activities. For this reason the Bank already operates 15 branch offices as well as units in business credit, private banking and securities operations , serving more than 80,000 clients and 2,000 firms, while 3 new branches will be opening soon. Speaking about the economic environment, Mr. Nanopoulos emphasised, that “our country finds itself today in a highly critical situation where our ability to achieve a new long-term sustainable development strategy is being tested. This means that we need to create conditions that will maintain a satisfactory annual growth rate of more than 3% in future. Despite the fact that Greece has been able in past years to maintain constantly higher growth rates than the European average and is therefore moving steadily towards real convergence with its partners, keeping up with this dynamic course is by no means easy in today’s strongly globalised and competitive environment. Our economy, our business activities and our production should constantly adjust to increasingly more modern and competitive standards. What is needed now is a more extrovert economic model, more productive, focused on private initiative and structured on the basis of a more limited role of the state in the economy. Moreover, the serious budgetary problem that reduces public resources, the well known and established dysfunctions in the operation of the state, as well as today’s perception of the public sector’s role in the economy, require a new mentality not only on the part of the state, but also on the part of the business community and society in general. Conditions are now ripe for the private sector to take on the role of the economy’s real growth driver. This should be in the direction of necessary structural reforms in the economic environment while any counter-incentives that inhibit the development of a healthy business activity should be eliminated. On the other hand, private initiative needs to prove that it has the relevant capability, that it shares this modern perception and that it is steadily striving for steady improvement, knowledge and quality. Therefore, today, the challenge, which we all have to meet, is to achieve, as quickly as possible, a competitive model based on the quality of our services, the integration of modern know-how, the use of technology and the adoption of modern management techniques”.
EFG Eurobank in co-operation with the Municipality of Heraklion and the environmental organisation “Clean up Greece” also organised on Saturday (4/6/2005) a special event during which a large group of volunteers among whom 60 EFG Eurobank employees, planted trees, after cleaning the site, in the area of the city’s Venetian Walls and distributed information material about the environment from a kiosk in Eleftheria Square. In the context of this event, a sum of € 10,000 was offered to the Municipality of Heraklion for the purchase of palm trees that will be planted on the city’s waterfront.
Messrs. M. Vlasatarakis, General Manager, Branch Network, E. Kavvalos, General Manager, Small Business Banking, G. Marinos, General Manager, Corporate Banking, E Bouloutas, General Manager, Private Banking, G. Zisis, Deputy General Manager, P. Mantas, Deputy General Manager, Al. Sarrigeorgiou, Vice-Chairman of the Board and Managing Director, EFG Eurolife SA and N. Andrianopoulos, Deputy Managing Director, EFG Eurobank Securities were among the Bank’s executives that visited Crete and met with 140 executives of the local Bank’s network and members of the business community.