National Bank: Thomopoulos to be appointed new president

The crisis within the National Bank of Greece, in relation to the appointment of a new president, appears to have been resolved, following a last-minute intervention of the ECB’s Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and the Bank of Greece, in order to protect the stability of the banking system.

As such, Leonidas Frangiadakis will stay on as Managing Director of the National Bank, while Panagiotis Thomopoulos will be appointed as the new Non-executive Chairman. The prospect of Mr. Frangiadakis stepping down, which would leave the bank headless, caused major concern within the SSM.

The board of the National Bank is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, which is expected to appoint Mr. Thomopoulos as new president. Banking sources commented that any administrative changes within the bank will take place, if at all, after the regular shareholder meeting in the next spring.