Proton Bank

The bank was established in 2001 as Τράπεζα Επενδυτικών Δραστηριοτήτων Α.Ε. and officially commenced its operations as a specialised investment bank in 2002. The founders of the bank were John Markopoulos, Anthony Athanasoglou and Elias Lianos.

Following a rapid development path, the bank was listed on the Athens Stock Exchange in December 2005 and later absorbed three listed closed-end funds, namely Arrow, Exelixi and Eurodynamics.

In September 2006 was renamed Proton Bank and it absorbed Omega Bank, with the new entity's share capital reaching €650 mil.

In December 2007 Bank Hapoalim (BKHPF.PK) started negotiations with Proton Bank's major shareholder IRF investment fund (of Angeliki Frangou) over a possible buy out.

The agreement never concluded because of issues related to Israel's central bank.

In September 2008 Proton Bank's major shareholder IRF fund sold their shares to other shareholders and a few days later Piraeus Bank started negotiations to acquire Proton

. The agreement finalized in November 2008 with Piraeus Bank acquiring 31.31% of Proton's total shares.

In December 2009 pharmaceutical and media magnate Lavrentis Lavrentiadis acquired the Piraeus Bank owned 31.31% of shares, becoming major shareholder and president of the bank.

Broking Services

Proton Bank was a member of Athens Stock Exchange, EUREX and Cyprus Stock Exchange.

It was the first broker in Greece to establish and operate the Reuters Order Routing system in both modes, allowing Proton Bank to operate in Execution Venue Mode receiving orders directly on-line from foreign brokers for the Athens Exchange, as well as in Order Entry Mode placing orders directly on-line to foreign brokers, members of international exchanges.

Business Game

In February 2008 Proton Bank and Business Player magazine organized the first business game in Greece. A number of magazine's subscribers were "contesting" in a virtual ATHEX stock market with a prize of the profits of their virtual portfolio.