The Ionian Islands are a group of islands in the Ionian Sea, west of mainland Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, but the group includes many smaller islands in addition to the seven principal ones.
The National Bank of Greece is a banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1841 as the newly independent country's first financial institution, it has long been the largest Greek bank, a position it still held in the early 21st century. Following the financial turmoil of the Greek government-debt crisis in the 2010s, it remains one of Greece's four dominant banks together with Alpha Bank, Eurobank Ergasias, and Piraeus Bank. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank. NBG offers financial products and services for corporate and institutional clients along with private and business customers. Services include banking services, brokerage, insurance, asset management, shipping finance, leasing and factoring markets.
Piraeus Bank is a Greek multinational financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece. Piraeus Bank's shares have been listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) since January 1918.
The Bank of Athens, colloquially known as Athinaiki, was a Greek bank based in Athens, Greece, from where it took its name. Founded in 1893 and long affiliated with France's Banque de l'Union Parisienne (BUP), it was Greece's second-largest bank in the mid-20th century behind the National Bank of Greece (NBG). It expanded in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean until merging with the NBG in 1953. Its brand was briefly revived in Greece during the 1990s, and separately survived until 2019 in a former South African subsidiary.
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was a bank incorporated in London in 1853 by Scotsman James Wilson, under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.
Sidney Louis Walter Merlin was a British botanist and sports shooter. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics and the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens. He was born in Piraeus and died in Athens.
Corfu or Kerkyra is a city and a former municipality on the island of Corfu, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2019 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands. It is the capital of the municipality and of the Corfu regional unit. The city also serves as a capital for the region of the Ionian Islands. The city is a major tourist attraction and Greek regional centre and has played an important role in Greek history since antiquity.
Banque Misr is an Egyptian bank co-founded by industrialist Joseph Aslan Cattaui Pasha and economist Talaat Harb Pasha in 1920. The government of the United Arab Republic nationalized the bank in 1960. The bank has branch offices in all of Egypt's governorates, and currency exchange and work permit offices for foreign workers in Egypt.
The Ottoman Bank, known from 1863 to 1925 as the Imperial Ottoman Bank and correspondingly referred to by its French acronym BIO, was a bank that played a major role in the financial history of the Ottoman Empire. By the early 20th century, it was the dominant bank in the Ottoman Empire, and one of the largest in the world.
The Bank of Cyprus is a Cypriot financial services company established in 1899 with its headquarters in Strovolos.
National Bank of Egypt is a bank founded in Egypt in June 1898, and is the country's largest bank (2013) in terms of assets, deposits, loans, bank-capital, number of total branches, and employees.
The Bank of Alexandria is one of the largest banks in Egypt, with 210 branches across the country. It has a market share of almost 7% and had assets of 5.2 billion euros as of June 30, 2006. Intesa Sanpaolo is the major shareholder in the bank. It holds 70.25% of the bank shares, IFC holds 9.75% and the Egyptian Government holds 20%. Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, who is a former head of the Egyptian Banks Federation, is a former chairman of the bank.
The Commercial Bank of Greece was a bank established in London in 1907, with an initial focus on activity in Greece. In 1922, its operations expanded georgraphically through its affiliate the Commercial Bank of the Near East. Emporiki Bank in Greece was nationalized in 1975, and eventually purchased on 1 February 2013 by Alpha Bank which absorbed it into its network.
The Anglo-Egyptian Bank was a British overseas bank established in 1864.
The Banknote Museum of Alpha Bank is a museum located in Corfu, Greece.
The First period of French rule in the Ionian Islands lasted from June 1797 to March 1799. Following the fall of the Republic of Venice in May 1797, the Ionian Islands, a Venetian possession, were occupied by Revolutionary France. The French instituted a new, democratic regime and, following the Treaty of Campo Formio, annexed the islands to France, forming the three departments of Corcyre (Corfu), Ithaque (Ithaca) and Mer-Égée.
The Treaty of Constantinople of 2 April [O.S. 21 March] 1800 was concluded between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire, and heralded the creation of the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire.
The Second period of French rule in the Ionian Islands began in August 1807, when the Septinsular Republic, a Russian protectorate comprising the seven Ionian Islands, was occupied by the First French Empire in accordance with the Treaty of Tilsit. The French annexed the Republic but maintained most of its institutions for local governance. In 1809–10, the British occupied the southernmost islands, leaving only Corfu, Paxoi, and the mainland exclave of Parga in French hands. The British also imposed a naval blockade on the French-ruled islands, which began to suffer from famine. Finally, the British occupied Paxoi in late 1813 and Parga in March 1814. Following the Abdication of Napoleon, the French governor-general in Corfu, François-Xavier Donzelot, capitulated and the French garrison was evacuated. In 1815, the islands became a British protectorate, the United States of the Ionian Islands.
The Privileged Bank of Epirothessaly, sometimes referred to in English as Privileged Bank of Epirus and Thessaly, was one of Greece's four banks of issue before the 1928 establishment of the Bank of Greece, together with the National Bank of Greece, Ionian Bank, and Bank of Crete. It was founded in 1882 in Volos by Greek financier Andreas Syggros, and acquired in 1899 by the National Bank of Greece.
