A market beyond the clean-up
Greece's banking recovery is often told through the sharp fall in non-performing loans (NPLs). The Bank of Greece reported a NPL ratio of 3.3% at the end of 2025, a striking reversal from the country's crisis years. Yet that improvement does not mean the underlying work of credit resolution has ended.
By June 2026, domestic credit servicing firms were managing nearly €79.7 billion in nominal loans transferred to non-resident specialised financial institutions, according to the Bank of Greece. That stock is a different measure from banks' own NPL ratios, but it points to the same reality: a substantial volume of credit still requires active management, restructuring and recovery.
Greece has consequently developed something more durable than a post-crisis clean-up mechanism: specialist credit infrastructure connecting borrowers, lenders, investors and real assets. Intrum has helped shape that transition.
From a bank workout unit to a servicing platform
Intrum's development in Greece illustrates how the role of the servicer has changed. In 2019, its strategic partnership with Piraeus Bank established Intrum Hellas, bringing bank workout capabilities into a dedicated credit-management platform.
Since then, the market has evolved beyond large-scale balance-sheet repair. Servicers now operate across the credit lifecycle, from borrower engagement and negotiated restructurings to securitisation support, recoveries and real-estate execution. They are not simply the final stop for loans that have gone wrong; they are part of the operating architecture through which credit risk is resolved.
Selling the loan is only the beginning
The first phase of Greek NPL reduction focused on portfolio transactions and securitisations, supported in part by the Hercules Asset Protection Scheme. Removing an exposure from a bank's balance sheet, however, is not the same as resolving the debt beneath it.
An overleveraged hotel may still need operational restructuring. An otherwise viable SME may need time, a sustainable repayment plan or fresh financing. A secured loan may require careful collateral management before the best recovery route becomes clear.
This is where effective servicing creates value. Borrower engagement, realistic business plans and disciplined execution can matter as much to ultimate investment performance as the purchase price of a portfolio.
Restructuring can protect value
The distinction between an impaired loan and an unviable borrower is especially important in corporate and SME credit. Businesses can be fundamentally sound yet constrained by debt structures that no longer match their cash flows or investment needs.
The economic question is not always how quickly a claim can be enforced. It is which route - restructuring, consensual settlement, realisation of collateral or another lawful solution - offers the most sustainable result for borrowers and capital providers.
As private credit and special-situations capital become more active, these decisions increasingly sit at the intersection of legacy debt resolution and the financing of a business's next phase.
Project Tethys: a different kind of resolution
Project Tethys offers a concrete example of this shift. In 2023, Intrum Hellas coordinated the sale of a loan portfolio to 72 hotel businesses. Intrum described it as Greece's first sector-specific portfolio sale in the secondary loan market.
Its significance was not simply the transfer of claims. The transaction was conceived around the prospect of restoring financial and operational viability, including through restructuring and potential new investment. It demonstrated how sector expertise, an understanding of underlying operating assets and an appropriately structured transaction can meet in a single credit solution.
That approach is relevant beyond tourism. Real estate, infrastructure and mid-market businesses can present situations where the most attractive outcome depends on a combination of financial restructuring and operational judgement.
Servicing expertise can connect old debt with new capital
Years of portfolio management give specialist servicers a detailed understanding of payment behaviour, collateral, legal processes and the outcomes of previous restructurings. That experience can help determine which borrowers are capable of recovery and which assets require a different route to resolution.
For investors examining special situations, such expertise can be valuable when deployed within the applicable servicing mandate, confidentiality rules and conflict-of-interest safeguards. Servicing and new-money investing remain distinct functions; the connection lies in better-informed, executable restructuring solutions.
In practical terms, resolving a non-performing exposure may create the conditions for a company to borrow, invest or grow again.
Real estate is part of the same story
Collateral can be central to recovery performance. Through Intrum Hellas REO, the group has also developed property-management and real-estate execution capabilities covering a large number of assets across different property categories.
The relevant judgement is not limited to the value of the loan. It includes the prospects of the asset itself: whether to sell, reposition, restructure or seek a different buyer. As institutional interest in Greek real estate continues, this connection between credit servicing and asset management becomes increasingly important.
Technology enables scale, but judgement remains essential
Managing complex credit portfolios at scale requires more than manual processes. Across its European business, Intrum has been investing in digital channels, automation and AI-enabled debt-resolution tools, including its Ophelos platform.
Technology can improve case prioritisation, workflow efficiency and borrower engagement. It can make the servicing process more consistent and help professionals focus on cases that require specialist attention.
Yet a corporate restructuring, a sensitive borrower situation or a complex secured asset cannot be reduced to an algorithm. Local legal knowledge, judgement and an understanding of the business behind the exposure remain essential. The opportunity is to use technology to deploy that expertise more effectively.
Why the Greek experience matters beyond Greece
Greece has combined a rapid banking-sector clean-up with the development of a sophisticated specialist servicing ecosystem. Its experience shows that the development of a secondary loan market is not solely about creating channels for portfolio sales: it also requires the operating capacity to manage what happens afterwards.
Markets across South East Europe are at different stages of credit-market development, but many face familiar questions around SME financing, restructuring, collateral and the availability of institutional capital. The Greek model will not be replicated exactly; its lessons about data, execution and sustainable resolution nevertheless have wider relevance.
The next chapter: recycling capital
A mature servicing market should ultimately be judged not only by the volume of debt it administers, but by the quality and sustainability of the outcomes it delivers.
A viable company that restructures its liabilities may invest again. A property that is repositioned can return to productive use. A cured loan may become financeable on conventional terms. Capital recovered through an orderly resolution can be redeployed into future lending and investment.
The broader credit lifecycle - origination, stress, restructuring, recovery and new lending - becomes more connected. Servicers play an important role in translating the transfer of financial claims into practical outcomes for investors, businesses and borrowers.
Continuing the conversation in Athens
These themes will feature prominently at the DDC Athens Credit & Special Situations Forum on 12-13 November 2026 at the NJV Athens Plaza Hotel. Investors, banks, servicers, private-credit managers and advisers will examine the next phase of credit and special situations across Greece, Cyprus and South East Europe.
Intrum's participation as a Gold Sponsor reinforces the importance of servicing in that discussion. The central question has moved beyond how banks can reduce distressed exposures. It is now what the credit infrastructure built through that process can enable next.
The future of the Greek credit market is not simply about resolving yesterday's debts. It is about applying the capabilities developed in doing so to tomorrow's financing and investment opportunities.
Editorial sources: Bank of Greece Financial Stability Review (May 2026); Bank of Greece Credit Servicing Firms (Q2 2026); Intrum partnership and Project Tethys announcements; Intrum Annual Report 2025.