NBG chief tenders resignation
Fragkiadakis quits one day before stress test results, likely due to recent negative news
Leonidas Fragkiadakis, the chief executive of National Bank of Greece, tendered his resignation yesterday, on the eve of the release of the Greek lenders’ stress test results today.
The NBG board decided that deputy CEO Pavlos Mylonas will assume Fragkiadakis’s duties until the group’s annual general meeting, while the process to find a successor is set to begin immediately, probably next week.
NBG announced last night that “during the meeting of the governing board the resignation of the bank’s chief executive officer Mr Leonidas Fragkiadakis was announced, following the completion of a full mandate and the constructive cooperation of three years.”
It added that “the board of the bank decided to proceed immediately to forming and applying a new strategy, and in this context Mr Leonidas Fragkiadakis decided and announced his resignation.”
Some sources say that recent negative developments in crucial matters for the bank, such as the failure of the process to sell Ethniki Insurance, the cancellation of the sale of NBG’s Romanian subsidiary and the handling of the issue of the auxiliary social security fund (LEPETE), created a negative atmosphere, leading to the decision for a new strategy.
Overall, however, Fragkiadakis’s time at NBG is considered to have been positive, and National’s performance in the stress test is seen to have been one of the best among the Greek systemic banks, relying on its solid capital position.
Fragkiadakis also went ahead rapidly, efficiently and consistently with implementing the restructuring plan agreed with the European authorities, thereby strengthening the lender’s capital base. It is noted that National was the first systemic bank to bring its dependence on the emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) mechanism down to zero.