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Alpha Bank is a Greece bank, headquartered in Athens, Greece. It has been founded in 1918 by John Kostopoulos Πέθανε ο ιδρυτής της Alpha Bank Γιάννης Κωστόπουλος and listed on the Athens Exchange since November 1925. As of 2025, it operates 272 branches in Greece and 12 additional locations in Cyprus, employing approximately 8,500 people.
After the death of Ioannis F. Kostopoulos, the reins of the bank were taken over initially by Spyros Kostopoulos and then by Dimitrios Kostopoulos, who in 1923 merged the banking division of the commercial house "Ioannis F. Kostopoulos" with the Bank of Kalamon, creating the "Bank of Hellenic Commercial Credit" based in Athens. On 2 November 1925 the bank was listed on the Athens Stock Exchange and in 1932 the bank moved to a privately owned building on Stadiou and Pezmazoglou streets.
The economic crisis of 1929 forced the "Bank of Hellenic Commercial Credit" to reduce its network of branches and to seek financing from the National Bank of Greece, which now appointed a representative to its board of directors. Dimitris Kostopoulos was succeeded in the leadership of the bank by his sons Spyros and Stavros Kostopoulos.
The war period that would follow would lead the bank to a dead end, which would liquidate almost all its assets. The board of directors will even call an extraordinary general meeting on 19 December 1944 to dissolve the company. The dissolution would not take place due to the events of Dekemvriana and after the Treaty of Varkiza the decision of the directors would be revised.
In the 1970s, Yannis Kostopoulos, son of Spyros Kostopoulos, joined the management of the company. The bank promoted a new corporate identity, renamed itself "Credit Bank" and adopted the reverse of the silver stater of Aegina as its archetype.17 In 1979 the bank celebrated its 100th anniversary. In 1984, after the death of his father Spyros, Yannis Kostopoulos assumed the duties of chairman of the board of directors. Under his leadership, the bank expanded its activities to other sectors through the establishment of dozens of subsidiaries.
In 1989 the bank expanded its activities to London with the establishment of a Representative Office, which shortly afterwards, in 1993, would become a branch. In 1993 the bank established "Banca Bucuresti", today Alpha Bank Romania, becoming the first foreign bank to enter the Romanian banking market.
The following year the bank acquired a majority stake in Kreditna Banka the fourth largest bank in North Macedonia, later renamed Alpha Bank A.D. Skopje. In 1999 the Bank acquired 51% of the shares of Ionian Bank for 272 billion drachmas, making it the largest privatisation ever in Greece. The merger of the two banking institutions was completed in 2000 and the new enlarged bank was named Alpha Bank.
In 2005 Dimitrios Mantzounis took over as CEO with Yannis Kostopoulos remaining as chairman of the board of directors of the bank. In 2008 the bank expanded into Ukraine with the acquisition of a majority stake in the newly established Ukrainian bank OJSC Astra Bank.
In 2012 Alpha Bank acquired and absorbed Commercial Bank of Greece and in 2014 it acquired the banking activities of Citibank in Greece, including Diners Club cards.
On the 31st of May 2013, the recapitalization of the bank was successfully completed, with the required private participation being more than covered, which resulted in the preservation of Alpha Bank's private character.
In 2013, Alpha Bank sold all the shares of its subsidiary JSC Astra Bank Ukraine to the Ukrainian group Delta Bank, in 2015 the Bulgarian branch to Eurobank Bulgaria AD, in 2016 Alpha Bank A.D. Skopje to Silk Road Capital and in 2017 Alpha Bank Srbija to AIK Banka A.D. Beograd.
On 31 March 2014 Alpha Bank successfully completed its €1.2 billion capital increase. The Bank redeemed the total amount of the Hellenic Republic's Preference Shares on 17 April 2014.
In May 2014, Vassilis Rapanos replaced Yannis Kostopoulos as chairman of the board of directors of the bank.
On 26 October 2014 Alpha Bank announced the successful completion of the European Central Bank's (ECB) Comprehensive Assessment in the Static Adverse Scenario with CET1 8.07% and Capital Surplus of Euro 1.3 billion. Based on the dynamic adverse assumptions, CET1 stands at 8.45% with Capital Surplus of Euro 1.8 billion. Also in 2014, Alpha Bank took over Citibank's Greek retail banking operations.
Alpha Bank requested Emergency Liquidity Assistance ( ELA) from the Bank of Greece on 16 January 2015. Its total funding from the ECB (ELA and non-ELA) was €29.9 bn as of 30 September 2015. On 17 July 2015 it sold its Bulgarian branches to Postbank (Bulgaria), the subsidiary of fellow Greek bank Eurobank Ergasias.
In November 2015, it was decided to increase the share capital by EUR 2,563,000,000. The increase included a voluntary exchange of bonds for new shares, through which EUR 1,011,000,000 was raised, and a capital increase by cash payment and cancellation of preferential rights of existing shareholders for an amount of EUR 1,552,000,000. As a result of the increase in the bank's share capital, the State's participation, through the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, was reduced to approximately 11%.
In 2021, Alpha Services and Participations S.A., 100% parent company of Alpha Bank S.A., successfully completed the Share Capital Increase of EUR 800 million by offering 800.000.000.000 new ordinary shares of nominal value of EUR 0,30 each. With the Share Capital Increase, the HFSF's stake in the bank was reduced to approximately 9%.
In July 2022, Alpha Bank completed the sale of Alpha Bank Albania to OTP Bank.
In October 2023 it was announced that Alpha Bank in Romania will merge with UniCredit leaving Alpha with a 9.9% holding in the new Romanian bank. The deal made between UniCredit and Alpha Bank included the acquisition by UniCredit of the entire stake that the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund had in Alpha Bank. Consequently, on 13 November 2023, the HFSF sold its 9% share of Alpha Bank to UniCredit.
In March 2025, Alpha Bank launched a €200 million takeover bid on Cypriot AstroBank, through its unit in Cyprus (Alpha Bank Cyprus). Alpha Bank finalised the acquisition in June 2025, thus leading to the creation of the third banking group in Cyprus (with a 10% market share) by the end of 2025 when the merger between AstroBank and Alpha Bank's Cypriot unit will be completed.
Other subsidiaries of the company are the following:
The stock is one of the 25 stocks in the FTSE/Athex Large Cap index (11 August 2015).
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