Bank

This change in the bank's name is part of a series of strategic initiatives aimed at establishing a visual connection with a bank committed to delivering high-quality services customized to the current needs of its clients.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has dismissed claims that the Central Bank intervened in foreign exchange rates by selling its reserves.

The Treasury and the Central Bank are working to make Turkish Lira instruments more attractive, Şimşek wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The combined net profit of Turkish banks increased by 41 percent in the January-July period from a year ago to 293.4 billion Turkish liras ($11.1 billion), the data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) have shown.

In July alone, the banking sector's net income was up around 12 percent to 43.3 billion liras.

Alpha Bank Romania announced on Thursday the acquisition of the retail business of Orange Money, a digital financial services platform.

The acquisition includes the customer portfolio, a mobile application, the credit card portfolio and employees.

The Central Bank has ended targeting conversion from foreign currency deposits to FX-protected Turkish Lira deposits (KKM) in a bid to support the lira time deposits.

More positive reports on Greek banks have come out from Canadian ratings agency DBRS and US financial services company Jefferies Group. 

DBRS notes that improvements in operational results and a better risk profile support a further strengthening of the banks' capitalization. But it also expects a slowdown in net income from interest rates. 

The "big four" Greek banks - Alpha, Eurobank, National and Piraeus - posted impressive first-half results, analysts say, focusing on their strong profitability and its main underlying cause, interest and commission fees, but also the quality of their assets and their liquidity, which led all to adjust their end-year goals upward.

On July 31, Pancreta Bank absorbed the Greek assets of global banking colossus HSBC, taking in a highly complementary business and, in effect, creating a new bank, far from its 1993 origins as a cooperative bank named Credit Development Cooperative of Heraklion.

In an interview with Kathimerini, CEO Antonis Vartholomeos explains that upcoming mergers will further expand the bank.

The Independent Public Revenue Authority plans to upgrade its systems to be able to monitor every individual's and business' electronic transactions, from bank deposits and withdrawals to payments.

Only cash transactions will escape the tax authority's watchful eye.

Three of the four major banks - Eurobank, National and Piraeus - that have published first-half results - Alpha Bank will do so this week - have declared income from interest above 3 billion euros, well up from the €1.8 billion recorded in the first half of 2022.