Europe
Practice Areas
Christina Papanikolopoulou has been practicing financial law since 1998, leading groundbreaking transactions in the Greek market.
Career
Christina Papanikolopoulou is the Managing Partner of Papanikolopoulou & Partners Law, where she leads a highly specialised banking and capital markets practice. Over more than 30 years, she has consistently advised on the most complex and high-value finance mandates in Greece, acting for major banks, financial institutions, funds and corporates in domestic and cross-border transactions.
Prior to founding the firm in 2024, she was Partner and Head of the Finance and Capital Markets group at Zepos & Yannopoulos (2016–2024) where she led major securitisation and structured finance transactions during pivotal phases of the Greek financial market.
Earlier, she served as Partner at KG Law Firm (2007–2016) advising financial institutions on structured lending and capital markets issuances and Partner at Karatzas & Partners (1998–2007), where she developed her longstanding expertise in banking and financial institutions work.
She is recognised for combining deep technical expertise with strategic judgment in structuring sophisticated financing transactions in evolving regulatory environments.
Work Highlights
Notable achievements include the first securitisation in the Greek banking sector, the first Greek synthetic securitisation, the first CMBS transaction, the first issuance of preferred redeemable shares offered to U.S. retail investors and listed on the New York Stock Exchange by a Greek systemic bank and the first relisting from the ATHEX to an international stock exchange (LSE) for a major Greece-based group.
Christina also led the first real estate investment company (REIC) IPO and combined offering to Greek and institutional investors in Europe and the US, as well as (in 2024) the first IPO and combined offering of a Greek company after almost 20 years of standstill; during the Greek financial crisis, Christina worked on the Greek PSI, on the recapitalisations of systemic banks, and on the first special liquidation of a failing Greek bank.
In the field of non-performing loans, Christina provided the legal structure for the first sale of a nonperforming loans portfolio for a medium size Greek bank, as well as for the first securitisation of commercial nonperforming exposures for one of the systemic banks; moreover, she worked on most of the NPL-related transactions that have taken place over the past years, including HAPS transactions and the set-up of the Greek arm of one of the largest NPL servicers in Europe.
Industry Sector Expertise
Financial transactions
Capital markets
Funds
M & A
NPL transactions
Regulatory
Expert in these Jurisdictions
Greece
European Union (regulatory & cross-border elements)
Cross-border (EU & international financing transactions)
Languages Spoken
Greek, English, French
Education
Southampton University
School of law (LL.M.)
University of Athens
Faculty of Law (LL.B.)
