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 The Bank of Greece ( , ) is the national central bank for Greece within the Eurosystem. It was the Greek central bank from 1927 to 2000, issuing the drachma. Since 2014, it has also been Greece's national competent authority within European ...

, together with the

National Bank of Greece The National Bank of Greece (NBG; ) 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 ...

Ionian Bank The Ionian Bank was a bank of issue established in 1839 in London to operate in the United States of the Ionian Islands, which was then a British protectorate. The bank moved its head office in Greece from Corfu (city), Corfu to Athens in 1873, ...

, and Bank of Crete. It was founded in 1882 in

Volos Volos (; ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the capital of the Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia regional unit of the Thessaly Region. Volos ...

by Greek financier Andreas Syggros, and acquired in 1899 by the National Bank of Greece.

Overview

Syggros, a financier from the Greek community in Constantinople, founded the bank on following the Greek annexation of most of

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

and part of

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

(the

Arta Prefecture Arta, ARTA, or Artà may refer to: Places Djibouti * Arta, Djibouti, a regional capital city in southeastern Djibouti * Arta Mountains, a mountain range in Djibouti * Arta Region, Djibouti Greece * Arta, Greece, a regional capital city in north ...

) under the

Convention of Constantinople (1881) The Convention of Constantinople was signed between the Kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire on 2 July 1881, resulting in the cession of the region of Thessaly (apart from Elassona) and a part of southern Epirus (the Arta Prefecture) to Gre ...

. Syggros was the bank's main shareholder, alongside the

(NBG) and other French and Greek investors. The bank opened for business on . It soon created branches in

Almyros Almyros or Halmyros (, ) is a town and a municipality of the regional units of Greece, regional unit of Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia, modern regions of Greece, region of Thessaly, Greece. It lies in the center of prosperous fertile plain know ...

, Arta,

Kalabaka Kalabaka (, ''Kalabáka'', alternative transliterations are ''Kalambaka'' and ''Kalampaka'') is a town and seat of the municipality of Meteora (municipality), Meteora in the Trikala (regional unit), Trikala regional unit, part of Thessaly in G ...

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

Trikala Trikala () is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala (regional unit), Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios (Thessaly), Pineios. According to the Greek Natio ...

as well as

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. The bank was commonly referred to internationally under its French name, since French was the vehicular language of finance in the Eastern Mediterranean at the time. The name "privileged" in its name refers to the government authorization to print

banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...

s. The latter were printed with one side in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and the other in French. The bank's notes were not very widely accepted. As Thessaly was temporarily occupied by the Ottoman Army during the

Greco-Turkish War of 1897 The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 or the Ottoman-Greek War of 1897 ( or ), also called the Thirty Days' War and known in Greece as the Black '97 (, ''Mauro '97'') or the Unfortunate War (), was a war fought between the Kingdom of Greece and the O ...

, its financial position was negatively impacted by the damage. Following Syggros's death in February 1899, it was eventually acquired in December of that year and absorbed by the NBG. Its building in the center of Volos was used by the NBG until being acquired by the municipality in 1969, and has been subsequently repurposed as a school of music.

References

{{reflist Defunct banks of Greece 1882 establishments in Greece

Overview

See also

References