Piraeus Bank () is a Greek multinational financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece. Piraeus Bank's shares have been listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) since January 1918. In Greece, with a 30% market share in loans (34.4 billion) and 29% in deposits (54.6 billion), is the country's largest bank. Activities Piraeus Bank is a universal bank providing various banking services. Historically a bank supportive of SMEs it now also possesses particular know-how in the areas of agricultural banking, consumer and mortgage credit, green banking, capital markets, investment banking, leasing and electronic banking. Piraeus Bank Group Piraeus Bank and its subsidiaries form the Piraeus Bank Group. History Foundation A group of shipowners in Piraeus founded Banque du Pirée (Piraeus Bank; BP) in 1916 to finance trade. The bank started trading on the Athens Exchange in 1918. The Greek government bought the bank in 1975 and transformed it into a universal bank. The new headquarters designed by Sir Basil Spence were built on Stadiou Street in the center of Athens. In December 1991 the government privatised the bank, which has grown in size and scope since then. Expansion and consolidation In 1962, PT joined the Emporiki Bank Group (or Andreadis Group). In On December 5, 1975, PT was nationalised and in 1991, the state privatized PT and the bank changed its name to Piraeus Bank (TP). Michalis Sallas takes over. In 1995 the Group established Piraeus Bank Romania with 160 branches and one year later Tirana Bank, the first privately owned banking institution in Albania with 56 branches. In 1999 with its acquisition of Xiosbank, PB took over Xios's branch in Sofia, Bulgaria; it has now some 83 branches in the country. PB also acquired the small New York-based Marathon National Bank and Interbank N.Y; it merged Interbank into Marathon Bank. In 1998 the bank absorbed the Greek branch networks of Chase Manhattan Bank, Crédit Lyonnais, and acquired a controlling interest in Macedonia-Thrace Bank. A year later it added in the activities of National Westminster Bank and acquired Xiosbank (Bank of Chios) which it totally absorbed along with Macedonia-Thrace Bank. In 2002 Piraeus Bank signed a strategic alliance with ING Group (bancassurance). In 2005 it acquired the Bulgarian Eurobank, Atlas Bank in Serbia, Egyptian Commercial Bank in Egypt. In 2007 it expanded in Ukraine by acquiring the International Commerce Bank (renamed as Piraeus Bank ICB) and established Piraeus