By Nikos Kotsikopoulos
With Eurobank opening an office in India by the end of the month, Credia this year having the most important news with the implementation of the acquisition in Malta, the National Bank investigating, reportedly, a possible target for acquisition in the investment banking and capital management part outside Greece, and Piraeus doing business in Emirata, Greek banks continue to move actively outside Greece.
Already, in 2025 they had expanded their international presence, with acquisitions, mergers and great activity. Of course, mobility had started earlier. But in particular in 2025:
The merger between the Greek Bank and Eurobank Cyprus was completed,
-The acquisition of AstroBank by Alpha Bank Cyprus,
- While CrediaBank announced a final deal to buy 70.03% of HSBC Malta's shares.
With these, the assets of subsidiaries of Greek banks and branches abroad reached 65.1 billion euros by December 2025, increased by 18.9% compared to the end of 2024, according to TTE figures. A big double digits raise.
The size of subsidiaries abroad
On a consolidated basis, the share of international activities in the total assets of banking groups was formed at 14.4% by December 2025.
Outside, Greek banking groups have a total loan portfolio of 30.75 billion euros. Loans only in the Southeast European regions are 23.89 billion euros and 43.37 billion euros deposits, while total deposits in Greek groups abroad are 46.75 billion euros.
The SDRs are only 491m euros or 1.6% with a "European Champion" Cyprus, which has just 1.5% in red loans in general. The SDR coverage index from accumulated forecasts reaches 93.1%. The loan-to-deposit ratio was set at 65.8%.
In Cyprus are also the largest portfolios of loans and deposits, with Greek banks operating in Cyprus, Bulgaria, the Republic of North Macedonia and with financial centres, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Germany and Ukraine.
Deposits at Greek group banks in Cyprus exceed 30.7 billion euros and loans at 13.15 billion euros. Bulgaria follows, with deposits of 11.04 billion euros and 8.9 billion euros loans. Luxembourg is third in loans, deposits and assets. Finally, Cyprus and Bulgaria number more than 3,300 employees in Greek banking groups.
Geographically, Southeast Europe represents 83% of the assets of the international activities of Greek banking groups.
The financial centres, i.e. Luxembourg, Germany and the United Kingdom, account for 16.7%, with the largest presence in Luxembourg.
The profitability of subsidiaries of Greek banks and branches abroad reached EUR 813 million in 2025. The largest contribution was made by subsidiaries in Cyprus and Bulgaria, whose profits account for about 49% and 33% of the total profits from the international activities of Greek banks.
It is noted that the profits before tax of subsidiaries of credit institutions and branches abroad accounted for 18.7% of the profits before tax of Greek banking groups.
According to TTE, "the international activities of the Greek banking groups contribute to the diversification of their revenue sources and to the reduction of concentration risk. Bulgaria's accession to the euro area has been a positive development since 1 January 2026, which makes it the twenty-first member of the euro area and the first country in Greece whose currency is the euro."
