National Bank of Greece SA named Panayotis-Aristidis Thomopoulos as non-executive chairman and Petros Sabatacakis as independent non-executive vice chairman. The HFSF initially blocked the appointment of Thomopoulos, a former deputy central bank governor, as it favored Dimitris Tsitsiragos to become chairman. Thomopoulos will replace Louka Katseli who, as a former economy minister, was pushed out under a new rule barring those with recent political experience from holding board posts at banks.