The European Banking Federation (EBF) held on Friday, June 7th, its annual (59th) meeting with its associate members in Athens. The meeting was hosted by the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) at its premises.

The meeting started with welcome speeches by the CEO of EBF, Mr. Wim Mijs, the Chairman of EBF Executive Committee, Mr. Eelco Dubbeling (General Manager of the Dutch Banking Association), and the acting General Manager of HBA, Ms Charoula Apalagaki.  HBA is a regular Member of EBF since 1981 and is represented on EBF Board of Directors by the Chairman of HBA Board of Directors, Mr. Gikas Hardouvelis, and on the Executive Committee by Ms Charoula Apalagaki. The meeting of 7th June was organized by the EBF Executive Committee.

On behalf of HBA, except Ms Charoula Apalagaki, participated also the Senior Director of HBA, Mr. Vassilis Panagiotidis, and the Head of the Hellenic Banking Institute and Financial Literacy Unit, Ms Sophia Ziakou.

The Agenda included the following topics:  

• Update on EBF activities, namely the latest developments at EU level; the EBF Memorandum and next EU term priorities by the Deputy CEO of EBF, Mr. Sébastien de Brouwer;
• Digital finance and cybersecurity by Ms Alexandra Maniati, Senior Director of Innovation & Cybersecurity of EBF;
• Achievements of the current term and the potential priorities for the next one for DG FISMA  by Ms Paulina Dejmek Hack, Director, FISMA A, DG FISMA, European Commission, and
• Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) supports to investments and engagement with private sector by Mr. Fulvio Capurso, Head of Sector - EU Guarantees-Private Investment at European Commission, DG NEAR.

On behalf of HBA Executive Committee, the keynote speech was addressed by Dr. Tasos Anastasatos, Chief Economist at Eurobank SA and Chairman of HBA Steering Committee for Economic Research and Perspectives of the Banking Sector, who presented the current macroeconomic developments in Greece, but also in the Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) – Prospects and Challenges. 

The meeting was attended by the representatives of the following countries (in alphabetical order):

Albania (Spiro Brumbulli, Secretary General, Albanian Association of Banks), Cyprus (Michalis Kammas, Director General, Association of Cyprus Banks), Germany (Aljoscha Bechthold, Associate, European and International Affairs, German Banking Association), Hungary (Levente Kovacs, Secretary General and Laura Petro, Manager, Hungarian Banking Association), Montenegro (Bratislav Pejaković, General Secretary, Association of Montenegrian Banks), North Macedonia (Maja Stevkova Shterieva, President and Toni Stojanovski, Vice President, North Macedonian Banking Association), Poland (Piotr Gałązka, Director of Representation Office in Brussels, Polish Bank Association), Serbia (Sladjana Sredojevic, Specialist for International Cooperation and Head of Bank Training Center, Association of Serbian Banks), Turkey (Ekrem Keskin, Secretary General, The Banks Association of Türkiye) and Ukraine (Petro Pekur, Vice-President, Ukrainian Banks Association).  

During the round table discussion, the members had the opportunity to exchange views and good practices related to the developments on European Union level, but also to the economies and banking system of the national associations of the participating countries.  EBF, HBA and the participating Associations, in the context of their constructive dialogue, expressed their interest in exploring further the possibilities of expanding their cooperation, in current issues of common interest in the Banking sector.

Dr. Tasos Anastasatos - The Greek economy and CESEE - Prospects and challenges