In response to the relevant query received by the Athens Stock Exchange with regard to press articles on August 8^th 2011, PROTON BANK S.A. announces the following:

The relevant press articles are based on extracts of the Conclusion of the Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing and Source of Funds Investigation Authority”. In terms of the Proton Bank, they make a series of questions both on specific loans and on the interest-rate policy followed during 2010, which allegedly misled depositors, implying property damage against them.

The Proton Bank in a press release issued on August 1, 2011 distributed, both to the Athens Stock Exchange and the Hellenic Capital Market Commission immediately responded to the latest developments aiming to the best possible  provision of information to supervisors, customers and investors. According to the relevant announcement, the Bank declared that no apparent embezzlement against the bank property is revealed, while, in addition, it stressed its full readiness to cooperate with the supervising authorities to fully clarify the issues raised. The position of the Bank remains the same until today.

Having always into consideration the provision of disclosure to all parts, as well as in the context of the protection of the Bank, the following are announced:

The Bank, during the period of 2010 participated, among others, to the provision of finance for the acquisition of companies and activities which belong to the Lavrentiadis Group of Companies. From the revenues of these company sales a significant part was used for the repayment of existing loans of the above Group to Proton Bank. For these loans, which remain promptly serviced, certainly, all predetermined bank loan procedure was followed, as well as the securing of company assets as collateral. The lending rates to these companies have been set with spreads ranging from 6% to 12% above the relevant interbank Euribor.

The Bank has never followed any short of misleading policy for the determination of either lending rates or deposit rates. With respect to the deposit rates, obviously, a misunderstanding has emerged for one of the deposit products of the bank, namely, Proton – Anelixis, which offers a 3% interest rate for the first three months  and gradually rises up to 9% only for  the last 12^th month. Therefore, its total average annual return equals 5%. Similar scaled products of other banks, even with larger interest rates, were usually utilized during the given period. In any case, for the disposal of deposit products, first the Bank of Greece is briefed which, under its permanent policy, follows and controls on a daily basis the interest rate competition inside the Banking System.

With respect to the part of the press articles referring to lending rates at the level of around 3.5%, beyond what was referred above on the lending rates to specific companies, we inform that the average lending rate to companies by Proton Bank was at the level of 7.91%, at 30/6/2011, which is significantly above the average market rate, and, certainly, at higher levels compared to the average deposit rate. Also, the comparative analysis demonstrates that the Bank maintains one of the lower loan to deposit ratios, as well as capital adequacy ratios and non-performing loan coverage ratios, slightly better to the sector average ratios.