The Bank of Greece has unanimously decided to propose the reappointment of Christina Papaconstantinou as Deputy Governor to the Greek Cabinet.
The proposal by the central bank's General Council comes ahead of the scheduled expiration of her current six-year term on March 11, 2027. Under Greek law, the formal appointment of the central bank governor and deputy governors is approved by the Council of Ministers before being signed by the President of the Republic.
Papaconstantinou has served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Greece since March 2021. In January 2024, she expanded her international duties by becoming a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, which directly supervises the largest commercial lenders across the eurozone.
European and central banking responsibilities
At the European level, Papaconstantinou sits on the Economic and Financial Committee of the European Union, a high-level body that prepares policy work for meetings of member state finance ministers. She also serves as an alternate member of the Regional Advisory Group for the Financial Stability Board, an international body that monitors vulnerabilities in the global financial system.
Within the Eurosystem, she represents the Bank of Greece on the Appia High-Level Advisory Group. The panel focuses on exploring new technologies and infrastructure, such as distributed ledgers, for settling wholesale financial transactions in central bank money.
In domestic financial infrastructure, Papaconstantinou chairs the board of directors of DIAS Interbanking Systems SA. The company operates the primary electronic payment system connecting Greek commercial banks and processing automated clearing house transactions.
Domestic governance and regulatory roles
Her current institutional duties also span Greek public finance, corporate administration and the arts. She sits on the board of directors of the Public Debt Management Agency, which oversees the Greek sovereign borrowing programme, as well as the board of the Athens Concert Hall Organization.
In addition, Papaconstantinou serves on the Corporate Governance Council of the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations, known as the Superfund. She is also a member of the Hellenic Parliament's Declaration of Assets Audit Committee and sits on the National Financial Literacy Coordination Committee.
Before taking up her post at the central bank, Papaconstantinou spent four years leading PQH Single Special Liquidation SA as chair of its board of directors from 2017 to 2021. PQH serves as the single special liquidator managing bad debt portfolios from resolved Greek banks. From 2019 to 2021, she was also a board member of the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, the national securities and capital markets regulator.
Crisis negotiations and debt restructuring
During a critical period of the Greek financial crisis from 2012 to 2014, Papaconstantinou held dual leadership positions in state financial administration. She served as Secretary General at the Ministry of Finance while concurrently serving as Secretary General of Fiscal Policy at the General Accounting Office of the State.
Throughout those two years, she participated directly in the Greek negotiating team dealing with international lenders over the economic adjustment programmes. She also served on the coordination team responsible for putting those fiscal and structural programmes into effect.
Her crisis work included serving on the Greek support team that negotiated the 2012 Private Sector Involvement bond exchange. That deal restructured more than 200 billion euros of Greek government bonds in the largest sovereign debt restructuring in financial history. She also served on the team monitoring the loan agreement with the European Financial Stability Facility, the rescue vehicle set up by euro area member states.
International representation and legal background
Papaconstantinou has represented Greece across numerous international economic and regulatory forums. Her experience includes attending the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council, known as ECOFIN, as well as high-level working groups and ministerial meetings at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
She also took part in working groups of the EU Economic and Financial Committee, the Financial Services Committee, and the Financial Services Working Group of the Council of the European Union. In domestic crisis policy, she served on the executive committee of the Government Council for Private Debt Management and was a member of the Financial Stability Board.
Her earlier career in public economic policy included serving as a research fellow in the Economic Research and Analysis Unit of the Council of Economic Advisers within the Ministry of Finance. She later worked as an advisor in the Prime Minister's Office and advised the Economic Unit of the Permanent Representation of Greece to the European Union on financial affairs.
Papaconstantinou began her professional career in legal practice. She served as legal counsel in the European Affairs Division of Commercial Bank of Greece, formerly known as Emporiki Bank. She also worked as an independent legal consultant handling state aid, public financial management, corporate law and EU competition law, and served as an expert on International Monetary Fund missions.
She holds a law degree from the School of Law at the University of Athens. She also holds a Master of Laws degree in European Community Law from the University of London.
