Malta-based trade finance services provider FIMBank has announced the closure of its branch in Athens, Greece.

The closure, it announced on Thursday, was confirmed by a board resolution, and is anticipated to take place within the first quarter of 2022.

This course of action, FIMBank said, is part of a restructuring plan set into motion “a few years ago,” and forms part of the company’s revised strategy, intending to focus on consolidation in selected markets.

This strategy pre-empted a review by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) in 2016, which placed limitations on the bank’s geographic expansion, which, it said, would not constrain it in pursuing and executing its approved strategy.

The Athens branch was established just prior to the announcement of this strategy, in 2014 with the stated objective of “tapping the potential for cherry-picking business and to provide alternative financing solutions within the Greek market, in order to bridge current limitations being faced by businesses.”

From the branch, the bank offers clients the financing for their purchases from suppliers, and the combining of other Bank products.

COVID had a negative impact on the bank, though according to its most recent financial reports, it has since rebounded somewhat.

In the first half of this year, the group reported a profit before tax of $2.3 million (€2.01 million), up from the loss before tax in the same period the year before of $15.2 million (€13.26 million).