About

Eurobank is one of the largest and most important banks in Greece and across the Balkans and South Eastern Europe, and the individuals operating in its multiple legal divisions make up a significant proportion of the in-house legal talent in Greece. Sophia Apostolidou is head of Eurobank’s corporate banking legal support division (performing loans), explains that the team is split into two subdivisions. The first, led by Angeliki Valsamaki – who Apostolidou describes as an individual with ‘a strong academic and professional standing and integrity’ – focuses on supporting the majority of the units of the bank’s group corporate and investment banking general division and has been involved in most of the key projects in this area over recent years. The second subdivision is led by Maria Chilakou, a highly skilled professional, who boasts more than 19 years of senior experience with the bank, and is tasked with providing legal support to the corporate banking divisions of syndicated loans and syndications agency, as well as of structured finance, including project finance, commercial real estate finance and leveraged finance. Apostolidou speaks very highly of the 24-person division’s performance in the face of a highly challenging market environment over recent years, highlighting some of its most positive qualities: ‘The last two years have been very challenging for the team, because of the team’s continuous efforts to maintain the high quality level of services provided to the Bank in the midst of the recent severe Greek financial crisis, which has been very difficult both for the Bank as well as for its corporate clients. Despite the crisis and the constant changing of the legal environment, the team has provided excellent results assisting the profitability and projects of the bank’ s group corporate and investment banking general division in every respect’.