Hellenic Bank announces new CFO

Hellenic Bank has announced the hiring of Antonis Rouvas as its new Chief Financial Officer. Rouvas will replace the previous CFO Lars Kramer who has since moved to ABN AMRO.

Rouvas has previous experience in international financial institutions in Cyprus and abroad, including stints at Credit Suisse in Singapore, Cyprus and London, as well as KPMG Cyprus, where he served as partner and board member.

“Antonis Rouvas has deep knowledge and wide-ranging experience in the financial and credit industry,” a Hellenic Bank statement said.

Rouvas has previous history with Hellenic Bank, having served as the bank’s Group Chief Financial Officer between 2008 and 2017.

Rouvas attended Wake Forest university in North Carolina, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Business and Mathematics. He has also been FCA certified by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and the Association of Corporate Treasurers in the United Kingdom.

The appointment of Rouvas as Hellenic Bank’s new CFO is pending approval by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Central Bank of Cyprus.

Hellenic Bank recently released its financial results for the previous year, posting a total net income of €391.3 million, reflecting a 3 per cent drop year-on-year, as well as profit after tax of €50.5 million, a 53 per cent drop from the previous fiscal year. Both of these figures reflect the effect of the pandemic, as well as the limitations imposed on the economy as part of the response from the government in its aim to limit any dire consequences to public health.

Outgoing Hellenic Bank CFO Lars Kramer explained that the reduction in the bank’s non-performing exposure (NPE) has dropped in an organic manner over the previous fiscal year.

“It is worthwhile noting that despite the absence of a major deal to offload Non-Performing Exposure in 2020, we still managed to decrease them by around 40 per cent,” said Kramer.

The bank used the press conference to provide updates on the new CEO and CFO.

“In terms of our new CEO, we have chosen the new CEO and the European Central Bank (ECB) is in the process of his approval, which is a mandatory requirement as you know. We will soon have him with us for the assumption of his duties,” General Manager Phivos Stasopoulos said.

Stasopoulos had specified that the CFO would be announced within the next few days but had not disclosed Rouvas’ name at the time.