Alpha Bank goes back to 1879, when the J.F. Costopoulos Commercial Firm, shortly after its establishment, commenced banking activities in Kalamata, Greece.

1916 was a landmark year, as J.F. Costopoulos founded the bank that would become present-day Alpha Bank. The bank was established in Kalamata in the form of a limited partnership. To better accommodate the banking needs of the local society, it was decided that the J.F. Costopoulos Bank would be restructured into an SA, under the corporate name “Kalamon Bank” (Bank of Kalamata). 

Despite starting locally, in 1924 the bank expanded to Athens and merged with the banking department of the J.F. Costopoulos Commercial Firm. The resulting banking institution was named Banque de Crédit Commercial Hellénique, was based in Athens and developed a regional network of branches in Southern Peloponnese.

Following WWII, the bank gradually restored its operations and in 1947 it was renamed Commercial Credit Bank. This was the only small bank to make it through WWII and the recession in the early 1950s. The bank made the most of the explosive growth in the Greek economy and developed a national network of branches. 

Since the 1970s, Credit Bank, as it was renamed in 1972, had been a leader in upgrading the Greek banking system. The bank created a new corporate identity and started to benefit from the loosening of state restrictions. By the end of the 1980s, it had already launched and was providing a wide range of innovative financial products and services.

From the early 1990s onwards, Credit Bank’s profitability was well above the Greek banks’ average. This allowed the bank to significantly increase its market share, but also to start expanding abroad. In 1994 it once again changed its name to Alpha Credit Bank.

In 1999 Alpha Credit Bank acquired Ionian and Popular Bank. The ensuing privatisation was the largest yet in the Greek corporate world. The merger was completed in 2000. The resulting enlarged bank was, and still is, Alpha Bank.

In 2012 an agreement was signed to buy Emporiki Bank’s entire share capital. On 1 February 2013 the entire share capital of Emporiki Bank was transferred to Alpha Bank by Crédit Agricole, while on 28 June 2013, the merger of the 2 banks was completed by absorption of Emporiki Bank by Alpha Bank.

Continuing its expansion, in 2014 it acquired the retail banking sector of Citibank in Greece.

In 2015 Alpha Bank proceeded with a €2.56 billion recapitalisation, fully funded by private funds, and paid off the €983 million state aid it had received in 2013.

In 2019 Alpha Bank launched Project Galaxy, a strategic transformation plan aiming to clean up its balance sheet, perform a corporate restructuring and reform its corporate governance. To this end, in 2021 it completed one of the largest NPE transactions in Europe, amounting to €10.8 billion, while also selling 80% of its servicer, CEPAL. At the same time, in 2021 it launched its 2021-2024 “Project Tomorrow” strategic plan and successfully completed the 1st growth capital increase since the financial crisis, raising €800 million.

In 2023 Alpha Bank became fully privatised again and entered into a strategic partnership with UniCredit. The new 2023-2025 strategic plan focuses mostly on improving profitability, maintaining balance sheet resilience, and generating and distributing capital.

As a result of this enhanced profitability, in 2024 Alpha Bank proceeded with a dividend distribution to shareholders for the first time in 16 years, while it was named “Bank of the Year in Greece” by The Banker, the Financial Times magazine.