Piraeus Bank of Greece hired Nick Karamouzis as its new management adviser. The former deputy chief executive of Eurobank will also serve as a member of the strategic planning committee of the Greek bank. It can be recalled that Karamouzis left Eurobank in June after it was recapitalized. He was with Eurobank for fourteen years.

His new responsibilities will revolve around turning the Geniki unit of Piraeus Bank into an investment bank. Piraeus bought Geniki last year from Societe Generale. It now intends to make the small commercial bank specialize in advisory banking, corporate restructuring and asset management. There will be an announcement when Geniki will be proceeding with a rights issue.

Piraeus, along with three of the top four banks in Greece, finished recapitalization in June worth EUR 27.5 billion.The bank suffered from writedowns on bad loans as well as on government debt which threatened its solvency. After it was recapitalized, it now intends to reenter the international market and increase lending to help turn the Greek economy around.