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.

The Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) participates for a tenth consecutive year with relevant activities in the "European Money Week" of the European Banking Federation and "Global Money Week" of OECD. 

The National Competition is only the first part of the joint initiative with the European Banking Federation concerning financial education programs for pupils aged 13-15 years old.

In this context, HBA successfully completed on March 20th, 2024, the seventh National Competition of the European Money Quiz. The competition was conducted online among 190 classes from 82 Schools (44 Gymnasiums and 38 High Schools) in Greece with the participation of 1.508 students, coming from Achaia, Arcadia, Attica, Chania, Cyclades, Dodecanese, Drama, Heraklion, Ilia, Ioannina, Karditsa, Kastoria, Kavala, Kozani, Laconia, Larissa, Lasithi, Lesbos, Magnesia, Messinia, Pella, Pfthiotida, Pieria, Preveza, Serres, Thessaloniki, Voiotia, and Xanthi.

European Banks call for developing a shared vision for the financial sector to preserve Europe’s competitiveness

Highlights from the EBF board

1. In the context of their transactional relationship with companies/clients, HBA member banks, which participate in this specific interbank initiative (ESGr / Common Interbank ESG Questionnaire Initiative), may have already sent, on an individual basis, their own questionnaires through the ESGr platform, as part of their end-to-end technical assessments/tests.

2. It should be noted, however, that the completion of such questionnaires does not replace the need to complete the commonly accepted interbank ESG questionnaire, which has resulted from the interbank initiative mentioned above and it is sent by a special link.

3. In addition, for the needs of completing the common interbank ESG questionnaire, companies are requested to create specific credentials for the interbank initiative, which are related to the process of completing this, whilst noting that the initial credentials obtained in the context of technical assessments/tests have been deleted.

4. Finally, we would like to assure you that the completion of the common interbank ESG questionnaire will be required to be done only once a year and your answers will be sent through the ESGr platform to all the banks you are in business with.

Sustainable development and the addressing of climate change’s risks constitute currently two of the most important challenges, both for business activities and society in general, and require the definition of long-term goals, as well as a systematic and multilateral, at national, European and international level, cooperation in order to be addressed.

The environmental and climate change crisis and the need for transparent corporate processes are raising the companies’ awareness to integrate ESG criteria (environment, society, governance) in their internal business processes.

The ESG criteria assess the footprint of companies on the environment and on society as well their response to the corporate governance principles. Their adoption and integration helps companies’ profitability and financial performance on multiple levels, enhancing their attractiveness towards investors, whilst at the same time protecting them against related risks.