For George Z. Georgiou & Associates LLC (GZG), those developments sit directly within areas in which the firm has built substantial experience: banking, restructuring, non-performing loans, corporate transactions, enforcement, dispute resolution and cross-border finance.
The Nicosia and Limassol-based firm will join DDC Financial Group as a Thought Leader Partner at the Athens Credit & Special Situations Forum on 12–13 November 2026, where Cyprus will form an important part of a wider discussion covering Greece, the Balkans and Southeast Europe.
DDC data note: Market figures, transaction sizes and market observations cited in this article were compiled by DDC from public sources; they were not supplied by GZG.
Cyprus: the NPL story has changed, not disappeared.
The headline transformation of the Cypriot banking system has been significant.
By May 2026, the non-performing loan ratio within the banking sector stood at just 1.6%, while approximately €0.8 billion of loans remained restructured, including roughly €0.3 billion still classified as non-performing.
That is a very different banking system from the one international investors encountered a decade ago.
But looking only at bank balance sheets misses an important part of the picture.
A substantial stock of historic credit has migrated to Credit Acquiring Companies and Credit Servicers, creating a sizeable specialist market for portfolio management, restructurings, real-estate workouts, enforcement and recoveries.
Central Bank of Cyprus data showed that the contractual balance of loans managed by Credit Acquiring Companies and Credit Servicing Companies reached approximately €19.6 billion at the end of March 2026.
The IMF has similarly highlighted that, despite the significant improvement within banks, large legacy NPL exposures remain outside the banking system.
This creates a very different opportunity set.
The Cyprus story is moving from bank clean-up towards active asset management, restructuring, servicing, recovery and ultimately the recycling of capital.
GZG’s position in the Cyprus credit market.
That transition is particularly relevant to GZG.
The firm’s banking practice says it provides ongoing support to international banks, the majority of Cyprus’s banks — including two systemically important institutions — and a significant number of credit-acquiring companies regulated by the Central Bank of Cyprus.
Its work extends across both contentious and transactional matters.
This includes large-scale NPL portfolio due diligence, loan restructurings, loan origination and security documentation, portfolio acquisitions, workout strategies, debt recovery and enforcement.
Particularly relevant to investors in stressed and complex credit, GZG also advises on restructurings involving debt-for-asset and debt-for-equity swaps.
This combination matters.
As the Cypriot market matures, the distinction between an NPL transaction, a corporate restructuring, an enforcement process, a real-estate workout and a new financing opportunity can become increasingly blurred.
The legal adviser therefore needs to understand not simply the original credit documentation, but the full lifecycle of the asset.
Significant transactions.
GZG’s recent publicly reported work also demonstrates that the firm’s activity extends well beyond traditional banking litigation.
Among work highlights disclosed by Legal 500 are several sizeable transactions.
The firm has advised on a €2.3 billion strategic intra-group financing arrangement.
It has also advised a retail company on a €35 million transaction involving the acquisition of a Cyprus-based company holding substantial assets, including the financing arrangements and the creation of flexible mechanisms for subsequent resale.
Another disclosed mandate involves a €17 million equity acquisition, including negotiation of the SPA, existing shareholder rights and the broader legal structure of the transaction.
The identities of parties in these mandates have not necessarily been publicly disclosed, but the transaction sizes demonstrate the breadth of the firm’s work across financing, corporate structuring and M&A.
GZG has also been active in the property market, with publicly reported mandates including a €10 million land acquisition and a €3 million acquisition of investment properties.
For investors looking at Cyprus today, that intersection between credit, corporate structuring and real assets is particularly relevant.
An increasingly complex legal environment.
The evolution of Cyprus’s credit market is not happening in isolation.
The legal framework governing borrowers, creditors, servicers and secured assets continues to change.
During 2026 alone, GZG has published analysis of several important developments.
Amendments to Cyprus’s personal insolvency framework under Law 112(I)/2026 altered aspects of Debt Relief Orders and Personal Repayment Plans, including eligibility, valuations, creditor voting and protections affecting guarantors.
Changes to the Transfer and Mortgage of Immovable Property Law have also affected foreclosure procedures, including additional debtor protections and requirements around reserve pricing in auctions.
At the same time, amendments to the framework for the out-of-court resolution of financial disputes have further changed the environment in which financial institutions, borrowers and advisers operate.
For investors acquiring or financing Cypriot credit, these are not merely legal technicalities.
They can affect timelines, recoveries, collateral values, restructuring strategies and ultimately investment returns.
Cross-border disputes are becoming equally important.
Cyprus also retains an important role in international corporate structures and cross-border disputes.
In June 2026, a GZG team including Managing Partner George Z. Georgiou and Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution Romanos V. Loizides acted for successful applicants in a Supreme Court matter concerning interim relief in support of intended foreign proceedings.
The judgment was significant because it was the first authoritative Cypriot ruling on the relevant provisions of the country’s 2023 Civil Procedure Rules in that context.
The underlying dispute involved Liechtenstein foundations and Cypriot and Polish affiliates — an example of the multi-jurisdictional complexity that increasingly accompanies international capital.
For private-credit, distressed and special-situations investors, this capability becomes important when an apparently local investment develops cross-border enforcement, ownership or restructuring dimensions.
From legacy NPLs to new capital.
Perhaps the most interesting question for Cyprus now is what happens next.
The banking system has undergone substantial repair.
The servicing industry has accumulated sizeable portfolios.
Investors and credit purchasers have developed considerable local expertise.
Meanwhile, Cyprus continues to position itself as a corporate, investment and financial gateway linking Europe with the Middle East and other international markets.
That combination creates the conditions for the next phase of the market.
Can successfully restructured exposures become re-performing assets?
Will banks eventually acquire seasoned or cured portfolios back from servicers?
Can private-credit managers provide financing to companies that have emerged from restructuring but remain outside conventional bank appetite?
How will credit purchasers monetise real-estate collateral accumulated through historic portfolios?
And where will international investors find value as the market moves beyond the large primary NPL transactions of the previous cycle?
These are increasingly investment questions rather than simply recovery questions.
Bringing the Cyprus perspective to Athens.
That is why Cyprus will form an important part of the conversation at the DDC Athens Credit & Special Situations Forum 2026.
GZG joins the forum as a Thought Leader Partner, with Marina K. Vassiliou, Partner and Head of Banking; Polina Christodoulou, Partner and Head of Commercial; and Gabriella Omorphou, Legal Consultant, currently among the GZG representatives registered to participate.
The two-day programme will examine areas including:
- NPL servicing and secondary sales
- re-performing loans and portfolio monetisation
- private credit and direct lending
- Cyprus as a capital and structuring gateway
- banking strategy
- real estate and asset-backed opportunities
- special situations, workouts and complex restructurings
- cross-border investment across Greece, Cyprus, the Balkans and Southeast Europe
The Cyprus market provides a particularly useful case study.
It shows how a jurisdiction can move from systemic banking distress, through deleveraging and portfolio sales, towards a more specialised ecosystem of servicers, investors, banks, advisers and new providers of capital.
The next chapter will be about what that ecosystem does with the assets, expertise and capital it has accumulated.
And firms such as GZG will be close to many of the transactions and legal questions that determine the answer.
George Z. Georgiou & Associates LLC is a Thought Leader Partner of the DDC Athens Credit & Special Situations Forum, taking place on 12–13 November 2026 at the NJV Athens Plaza Hotel.
Explore the Athens programme, speakers & participating organisations →
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