the bank was founded in 1976 with technical assistance from bank of america and in 1996 it bought the local operations of barclays bank. a major shareholder (29%) was traditionally and for many years, the church of cyprus. between november 2013 and december 2014, the church's shareholding shrank to 0.3% making it a small shareholder, after cyprus based demetra investments public ltd holding 21%, belarus owned video game company wargaming group limited holding 20.6%, us investment manager pimco via poppy sarl, holding 17.3%, us based cpb fbo third point hellenic recovery fund lp holding 12.6%, the bank workers trade union etyk provident fund holding 6.26%, canadian based senvest international llc/ senvest masterfund lp holding 4.64% and cyprus based 7q financial services ltd holding 2.53%. the board is composed of representatives of the top five shareholders (except the bank trade union).