Keravnos appointed as new CEO of Hellenic

The Board of Directors of Hellenic Bank Group confirmed the appointment of Makis Keravnos, former Finance Minister as the Group’s new Chief Executive Officer with effect from September 1, 2005.

Keravnos, an economist, had served until the very last day as Finance Minister in the government of Tassos Papadopoulos and before that as Labour Minister.

His biggest achievement while at the Finance Ministry was to reduce the fiscal deficit from above 6% to within the EU Growth & Stability level of 3% with forecasts for 2006 pointing to a deficit of only 1.7% of GDP.

The deficit reduction was instrumental in allowing the Cyprus pound to be eligible for entry into the European Exchange Rate mechanism ERM2 in April.

Keravnos replaces Constantinos Loizides who resigned from his post at Hellenic Bank and after the Church and other major shareholders including Laiki Bank orchestrated the departure of the previous Executive Chairman of the Bank, Panos Galanos following massive losses due to higher provision charges.

In a major shakeup of the Bank, Andreas Panayiotou, a former minister, and Demetris Eliades were elected as new board members in March with Panayiotou assuming the role of Chairman of the Bank.