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
Albanian Ionian Sea Coast of Humanity. The country of Albania is located in the southwest of the Balkan Peninsula and bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south and southeast. Most of the country is rugged and mountainous with the Albanian Alps located in the north, the Korab Mountains in the east, the Ceraunian Mountains in the south and the Skanderbeg Mountains in the center. Being positioned in the Northern Mediterranean Sea, the country's coast touches both, the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea, forming the renowned Albanian Riviera. In contrast