page_title: Ionian Bank
section_title: Between the Wars
hierarchical_section_title: Ionian Bank / History / Between the Wars
caption_attribution_description: English: This building housed Ionian Bank's branch in Nicosia.
context_page_description: The Ionian Bank was a British overseas bank that investors established in 1839 to operate in the Ionian Isles, which was then a British Protectorate. It served also as the central bank of the United States of the Ionian Islands. IB later expanded in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. After losing its branches in Egypt to nationalization, IB retreated from the Mediterranean, selling all its operations there. Michael Behrens and John Trusted then acquired Ionian Bank, converting it into a merchant bank in London. This London operation was never very successful and in 1977 it voluntarily gave up its banking licence. The Greek operation, renamed Ionian Popular Bank, was absorbed into Alpha Bank in 2000.
context_section_description: In 1920, Ionian Bank lost its privilege of note issue. Two years later, IB acquired the Constantinople branch of Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, and possibly a sub-branch or agency in Smyrna. In 1924, IB continued its international expansion by opening  a representative office in New York. Then in 1926, IB established a branch in Nicosia, Cyprus and next year agencies in Famagusta, Limassol and Larnaca.  IB retreated from New York in 1928, closing its branch office there, and from Constantinople the next year by selling its branch there to Deutsche Bank. Lastly, in 1938, it acquired more than two-thirds of the share capital of Popular Bank, which was established in 1905.
caption: Ionian Bank's former branch in Nicosia
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