Piraeus Bank obtains unconditional approval for acquisition of Ethniki Insurance
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Compass Lexecon advised Piraeus Bank in its acquisition of the Greek operations of the Ethniki Insurance Company. The deal was subject to regulatory approval from the competent authorities. The Hellenic Competition Commission (‘HCC’) cleared the transaction unconditionally in August 2025.
Situation
In April 2025, Piraeus Bank notified the HCC on its intention to acquire the Greek operations of the Ethniki Insurance Company. The transaction would diversify the income sources for the Group, by adding an insurance business that would buffer it from macroeconomic shocks and increase its competitiveness to the benefit of its customers.
Our role
Compass Lexecon was engaged to support Piraeus Bank and its external legal counsel with the merger filing. The evidence produced showed that the transaction is unlikely to significantly limit competition in the markets for banking products and other relevant markets where either firm is active in.
Outcome
The HCC’s analysis revolved around the markets of insurance intermediation and the distribution of bancassurance products, as well as life and non-life insurance and reinsurance.
The market shares of the Parties, the fact that insurance distribution channels are substitutable and the competitive interactions in the affected markets showed that the transaction would not impede competition in any extent.
The HCC found that the transaction raises no serious concerns regarding its compatibility with competition rules in the markets concerned and cleared the deal unconditionally in August 2025.
The team
The Compass Lexecon team was led by Jorge Padilla, Lorenzo Coppi and Angelos Stenimachitis, with support from Haris Spyrou. They assisted a legal team from Potamitis Vekris headed by Dimitris Loukas and including Athanasios Taliadouros and Konstantina Markomichali.