Ionian Bank up its banking licence. The Greek operation, renamed "Ionian Popular Bank", was absorbed into Alpha Bank in 2000. A "decree of the Eminent Senate of the Commonwealth of Ionian Islands" established the Ionian State Bank in 1839, to finance trade between the Ionian Islands (a British protectorate), and Great Britain. This made the bank the oldest in Greece. The bank received a 20-year grant of the exclusive privilege of issuing and circulating banknotes for the Ionian Islands. The bank soon changed its name to Ionian Bank (IB), and initially only operated in the Ionian Islands, opening branches in Corfu, Aante
Sea of Marmara , with dimensions .Its greatest depth is . The sea takes its name from Marmara Island, which is rich in sources of marble, from the Greek "μάρμαρον" ("marmaron"), "marble". The sea's ancient Greek name "Propontis" derives from "pro-" (before) and "pontos" (sea), deriving from the fact that the Greeks sailed through it to reach the Black Sea, "Pontos". In Greek mythology, a storm on Propontis brought the Argonauts back to an island they had left, precipitating a battle where either Jason or Heracles killed King Cyzicus, who mistook them for his Pelasgian enemies. The surface salinity of the sea averages