George Provopoulos - Governor of the Bank of Greece Or Bank of Greed?

George Provopoulos, Governor of the Bank of Greece (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” - Socrates

Bank of Greece governor George Provopoulos was given a severance payment of 3.4 million Euros when he left his former employer Piraeus Bank … a major bank that he now regulates. But he also regulates Emporiki Bank – the black hole that could yet help to blow the French banking system over. He made even more from selling that.

No conflict there then … and of course, no question of the Provo in pursuit of the world’s biggest pension fund before the moussaka hits the fan.

Previously on Banksters, Provopoulos had joined Piraeus Bank on October 18, 2006. As a vice-chairman and managing director, he was entitled to a net salary of 580,000 Euros, plus expenses and a bonus. When he resigned from Piraeus after 19 obviously gruelling months of service, on the day before he left the bank its directors approved a massive severance payment of 2.8 million Euros.

Before joining Piraeus, George was the chief executive at Emporiki Bank. In August, 2006, the French bank Crédit Agricole acquired 67% of its capital. He oversaw the bank’s sale to Créditag, and then left nine weeks later – reputedly some 6 million Euros richer for his efforts – headed for the BoG Governor’s job.

Not surprisingly, the French Credit Agricole chaps are a tad peeved about the conflict of interest involved here. For yer Frenchies – facing mounting losses at Emporiki – say they’d like some help from … the Greek central bank.

But Greek Central Bank governor George Provopoulos seems reluctant to allow this. Between June 2010 and May 2011, Crédit Agricole lodged numerous requests to borrow from the Greek central bank’s Emergency Liquidity Assistance fund. But the Provo says his refusal to let Emporiki borrow is based on its French parent’s “unwillingness to keep lending”.

We are right down there at the bottom of the hypocrisy barrel on this one. And for those of us informed observers of this surreal rape of the system designed to finance capitalism, it remains hard (not to say impossible) to see why the average Greek citizen is being hounded, taxed, demoralised and repressed to atone for the sins of turds like Provopoulos. When they’ve finished squabbling about who picks up the Nobel Dynamite Prize, perhaps the EU commission could take time out to explain this to us. (The Slog)