George Provopoulos (; 20 April 1950 – 28 May 2024) was a Greek economist who was the Governor 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 ...

from 2008 to 2014, and was a member of the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

Governing Council A personal ordinariate for former Anglicans, shortened as personal ordinariate or Anglican ordinariate,"Bishop Stephen Lopes of the Anglican Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter..." is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church establish ...

. Prior to his appointment as Central Bank Head, he was a professor at the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

Early life and education

Provopoulos was born in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

and obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Economics at the University of Athens, and his MA and PhD in Economics at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

on a UK Government Scholarship.

Career

Early in his career, Provopoulos was chairman and CEO at

Emporiki Bank The Commercial Bank of Greece (, thus also known as Emporiki Bank) was a bank established in London in 1907, with an initial focus on activity in Greece. In 1922, its operations expanded geographically through its affiliate the Commercial Bank of ...

, Greece's fifth-largest lender, where he oversaw the bank's acquisition to

Credit Agricole Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

in 2006. He later served as CEO at

Piraeus Bank Piraeus Bank () is a Greece, Greek multinational financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece. Piraeus Bank's shares have been listed on the Athens Exchange, Athens Stock Exchange (Athens Exchange, ATHEX) since January 1918. ...

. As the country's central bank chief during the

Greek government-debt crisis 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 kn ...

, Provopoulos presided over efforts to avert the collapse of Greece's banking system amid fears the country would abolish the

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

Death

Provopoulos died of cancer on 28 May 2024, at the age of 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provopoulos, George 1950 births 2024 deaths Governors of the Bank of Greece Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens People from Piraeus National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni Deaths from cancer in Greece