Alpha Bank, Hellenic Post announce strategic cooperation deal

The deal between the ATHEX-listed banking group and Greece’s postal service is viewed as vital for the latter, given the immense competition it faces from private letter and parcel carriers – a more-or-less ubiquitous trend in the West.

By all accounts, ELTA’s post offices will serve as mini bank branches, something especially important for rural and remote regions, where Greek banks over the past 20 years have significantly reduced their physical presence.

In a later statement welcoming the development, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the agreement recognizes the reforms undertaken at ELTA in recent years, “ones which transformed the once deeply troubled company into a business that can attract as a strategic partner, in this case of Greece’s systemic banks, which includes as a shareholder one of the largest financial institutions in Europe, Unicredit.”