Piraeus Bank has completed the acquisition of a 90.01% stake in Ethniki Insurance, formerly known as National Insurance of Greece, the bank confirmed in March 2025. The transaction is the centrepiece of Piraeus's bancassurance expansion strategy and gives Greece's banking sector one of its most direct bank-insurer combinations since the country's financial system began its recovery from crisis.
The deal is strategically significant for Piraeus because insurance distribution generates fee-based income that is less capital-intensive than lending. As Greek banks have rebuilt their balance sheets and reduced their non-performing loan burdens over the past several years, the focus of management attention has increasingly shifted to diversifying revenues. Acquiring a majority stake in one of the country's largest insurers achieves that objective at scale.
BANCASSURANCE AS A REVENUE DRIVER
The bancassurance model — distributing insurance products through a bank's branch network and digital channels — has become a significant earnings contributor for large European banks in markets including France, Spain, and Italy. Greek banks have historically been less active in this space, but the post-crisis recovery and the return to profitability across the sector have created the conditions for transactions of this kind. Ethniki Insurance brings an established product range covering life, health, and property and casualty lines, all of which can be offered to Piraeus's retail and SME customer base.
For Piraeus specifically, the fee income from insurance sales will supplement net interest income at a point in the economic cycle when interest rate movements are creating some uncertainty about future margin trajectories. Bancassurance income tends to be relatively stable through the cycle, providing a degree of earnings resilience that pure lending-focused models do not always offer. The 90.01% stake gives Piraeus near-complete operational control of Ethniki, allowing it to integrate the insurer's distribution fully with its own customer-facing channels.
Ethniki Insurance itself is a well-established institution in the Greek market, carrying brand recognition that pre-dates the banking crisis. Its historical affiliation with National Bank of Greece gives it an institutional heritage that aligns naturally with Piraeus's own standing as one of the four systemic Greek banks. The transaction will require ongoing integration work to realise the full commercial potential of distributing Ethniki's products through Piraeus's customer relationships.
GREEK BANKING SECTOR RECOVERY
The acquisition reflects how far the Greek banking sector has come since its acute crisis period. Piraeus had returned to sustainable profitability in the years before this transaction, reducing its non-performing exposure and restoring its capital ratios to levels that allow it to pursue strategic investment rather than simply stabilise its balance sheet. That recovery trajectory provided both the financial capacity and the management bandwidth to pursue a deal of this scale.
The four systemic Greek banks — Piraeus, National Bank, Eurobank, and Alpha — have each pursued differentiated strategies as they have looked to build on their restored health. The Ethniki acquisition positions Piraeus as the most ambitious of the four in the bancassurance space and sets a reference point that its competitors may feel compelled to respond to. Greek regulators have signalled general support for consolidation and diversification within the sector, and the Piraeus-Ethniki combination falls squarely within that supportive framework.