Establishment | THE J. F. COSTOPOULOS FOUNDATION THE J. F. COSTOPOULOS FOUNDATION

In 1979 Credit Bank, a private sector bank which commenced operations in Kalamata, celebrated its 100th anniversary. On the occasion, a series of commemorative events were held and a number of memorabilia wereproduced, including the limited edition album The Banknotes of Greece from 1828 until the present day. Thirty years later, Credit Bank has evolved into Alpha Bank and these historical promotional ideas, imaginative and pioneering as they were at the time, remain engraved in the memory of people who witnessed them and attest to the Bank’s history and policy. However, the most significant and long-standing legacy of Credit Bank’s centenary celebration is the establishment of the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation. The initial idea for the creation of a non-profit charitable foundation as an endowment to commemorate the centenary belongs to the late Spyro J. Costopulo, the Founder’s last surviving son and Chairman of the Bank. Spyro J. Costopulo and his wife Eurydice each contributed 10,000 of the Bank’s shares to set up the foundation which bears the name of the Bank’s founder, John F. Costopoulos. The donation of Spyro and Eurydice Costopulo was worth 32 million drachmae at the time. At present, following further contributions in shares by the departed Spyro Costopulo and by Yannis S. Costopoulos, but especially through the Foundation’s participation in all subsequent share capital increases of the Bank over the last thirty years, the Foundation holds 6,620,000 Alpha Bank shares and ranks amongst the Bank’s major shareholders.

Efstathia J. Costopoulos

1870-1950

The daughter of Dimitrios Efstathios Stathakos (or Melenikos), she was born in 1870 in Zygovisti, Arcadia. In the late 1880s she married John F. Costopoulos, the founder of Alpha Bank, and they had six children, five sons —Dimitris, Panos, Fotis, Spyros and Stavros— and one daughter, Evangelia-Lina. Among her numerous social activities she chaired the Ladies’ Society of Kalamata from its inception in 1910 to 1923. She died in May 1945 in Athens. In 1989, the Efstahia J. Costopoulos Foundation was established, dedicated to her memory, and aiming at building and operating a nursery school in Kalamata. This donation contistuted the contribution of Alpha Bank, Yannis S. Costopoulos, his sister Anastasia, and the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation to the rebuilding of the city after the earthquakes of 1986.

Eurydice Costopoulos

1870-1949

Daughter of the industrialist Dimitrios Mantzounis from Tripolis, Arcadia, she was born in Athens in 1907. She married Spyros J. Costopoulos with whom they had two children, Anastasia and John. In addition to being a painter she was active in social and philanthropic work. During World War II she offered her services to the Hellenic Red Cross, helping to organise and run soup kitchens. In the post-war period she worked as a volunteer in the Work Therapy Department of the Asklepieion Hospital in Voula and the Society for the Education of Young Women. In December 1979, Eurydice and her husband founded the John F. Costopoulos Foundation. She died in Athens in May 1980.

Spyros J. Costopulos

1896 - 1984

The fourth son of Alpha Bank founder John F. Costopoulos, he joined the family’s business activities from an early age and served as director of the J.F. Costopoulos Bank (1916-1918) and the Kalamae Bank (1918-1924). He served also as General Manager (1928-1945), Managing Director (1953-1971), President and Honorary President of the Board (1945-1953 and 1968-1984) of Hellenic Commercial Credit Bank, Commercial Credit Bank and Credit Bank, respectively. In December 1979 on the occasion of the centenary of the Credit Bank, as was the name of Alpha Bank then, he founded together with his wife the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation. He died in Athens in 1984.

John F. Costopoulos

1856-1918

Born in Sperchogeia, Messinia in 1856, he was the founder of today’s Alpha Bank. He went into the fabric trade from a very young age, and in 1879 he founded the J.F. Costopoulos commercial house in Kalamata. In 1885 he expanded into banking services, creating a separate banking department in the commercial house. In 1916 he went on to found the J.F. Costopulo Bank, which was renamed into Kalamae Bank two years later. He died in Kalamata in March 1918.