Alpha Bank, one of four systemic banks in Greece, and Hellenic Post (ELTA), the national postal service, on Tuesday signed a strategic memorandum of cooperation (MoC) whereby the former will offer banking and credit services at the latter’s 1,100 branches around Greece.
The deal between the ATHEX-listed banking group and Greece’s postal service is viewed as vital for the latter, given the immense competition it faces from private letter and parcel carriers – a more-or-less ubiquitous trend in the West.
By all accounts, ELTA’s post offices will serve as mini bank branches, something especially important for rural and remote regions, where Greek banks over the past 20 years have significantly reduced their physical presence.
The agreement calls for the gradual implementation of the agreement, beginning in the second half of 2025, at the branch level, before being expanded to e-commerce and logistics.
In a later statement welcoming the development, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the agreement recognizes the reforms undertaken at ELTA in recent years, “ones which transformed the once deeply troubled company into a business that can attract as a strategic partner, in this case of Greece’s systemic banks, which includes as a shareholder one of the largest financial institutions in Europe, Unicredit.”
Source: tovima.com
