Ελληνική Ένωση Τραπεζών / Η Ένωση / Hellenic Bank Association

Hellenic Bank Association (HBA)

The Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) is the representative of the vast majority of all Greek and foreign credit institutions that operate in Greece. It was established in 1928 and is a non-profit legal entity. It expresses the views of its member banks, provides advisory input to the regulatory process, participates in the decision-making procedures of international, European and national law-preparing and technical committees, and cooperates with other countries' organizations and associations of the financial sector in the context of bilateral or multilateral agreements. The HBA focuses on the collective modernization of its member banks and the overall development of the financial sector.

The Hellenic Bank Association welcomes you to its website.

We are following the evolution of the banking sector in Greek, European and International level. We hope to derive useful information from your visit to our website.

Charoula Apalagaki
Acting General Manager, HBA

The HBA currently has 20 members, 9 of them are regular and 11 are associated.

On 31/12/2023, HBA member banks:

They directly employed 28,436 workers or 99.75% of the domestic banking sector;
They had 1,405 bank branches or 99.4% of the domestic banking sector;
They had 6,067 automated teller machines (ATMs);
They were present in 8 banking markets abroad through subsidiaries and branches (in Egypt, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Germany, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Romania) with 455 bank branches and 7,975 direct employees.

The Hellenic Bank Association is not a bank, does not perform any direct or indirect business activities, and does not keep any funds on behalf of its members or the public. It is not a bank supervisor; it does not impose regulatory compliance rules; it is not an employers' organization and it does not sign collective labour agreements.

Hellenic Bank Association Statute

As of September 1st 2019, the restrictions on cash withdrawals and capital transfers have been repealed by virtue of Article 86 of Law 4624/2019 (Government Gazette Issue A’ 137). All relevant Ministerial Decisions and Decisions of the Committee for the approval of banking transactions that were adopted during the period that the restrictions on cash withdrawals and capital transfers were in force have been repealed by the abovementioned Article of Law 4624/2019 as well.

Law 4624/2019 is available only in Greek.

Government Gazette Issue A’ 137/29.8.2019

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The following section sets out, exclusively for historical purposes, the legislative framework pertaining to the restrictions on cash withdrawals and capital transfers that was in force from 18 July 2015 until 31 August 2019.