Christos Megalou, the bank’s CEO, spoke about Piraeus Bank’s strategic decision to support the development of Epirus during his address at the conference titled “Epirus: The Roots and Future of Authenticity,” held in Ioannina.
Piraeus Bank has a significant historical presence in Epirus and currently operates 8 branches, with approximately 2 billion euros in deposits and over 400 million euros in financing provided to more than 680 businesses operating throughout the Region of Epirus, as well as an extremely low non-performing loan ratio.
Mr. Megalou strongly emphasized the cooperation and constructive dialogue with the Region, the Municipality, the University of Ioannina, and the business community, as well as the competitive advantage in innovation provided by the university’s strong presence and the region’s ecosystem.
“The link between entrepreneurship and innovation is exemplified by the neobank Snappi, which is headquartered in Ioannina and emerged from the collaboration between Piraeus Bank and the local technology company Natech,” he added.
“Snappi, which is licensed by the European Central Bank to operate as a credit institution throughout the Eurozone, has been engaging with customers over the past six months and currently has around 200,000 digital banking users and 130,000 customers who hold deposits, take out loans, and conduct transactions with Snappi,” said the CEO of Piraeus Bank.
Regarding support for investments in the region more broadly, Mr. Megalou emphasized that it is important for a region to be able to offer an “investment portfolio”—something that Epirus is doing through innovation, gastronomy, investments in energy, logistics, as well as the opportunities provided by the new highway network via the Ionian Highway and the Egnatia Highway.
“The banking system has now moved on to the next stage with very strong liquidity and is seeking investment projects to finance. So when you have a portfolio of investments, you limit the risk both for the region and for the credit institutions,” he noted.