Carmen Panacopoulos

Vice President, Commercial Real Estate Division, Citizens Bank

Carmen Panacopoulos is Vice President in the Commercial Real Estate Division at RBS Citizens N.A. in Massachusetts. She joined Citizens in October 2005 with more than 15 years of affordable housing and economic development experience.

Panacopoulos is responsible for working with for profit and non-profit developers to help encourage the financing of affordable housing developments in Massachusetts. Citizens’ commitment to this effort is reflected in its Housing Bank Loan program, which was launched in New England in 2004. The Citizens Housing Bank Loan Program, a $200 million loan commitment, was designed to address the need of affordable housing by providing non-profit developers with the low-cost funding they need to create a new supply of affordable housing units for rental or homeownership and increase neighborhood stability through new homeownership opportunities.

Prior to joining Citizens Bank, Panacopoulos served as a Senior Community Investment Manager with FHLBBoston and a Senior Asset Manager with MassHousing. She has a proven track record of working with for profit and non-profit developers in the creation and preservation of affordable housing. In addition, while at the FHLBBoston, she provided expertise consultation and training to more than 150 financial institutions with regard to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s community investment programs.

Carmen is active in the community and serves on the Board of the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, where she is a board member. She is also an advisory board member with the New England College of Finance, Financial Services Academy Board., a committee member of the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, investment committee and Northern New England Housing Investment Corporation an advisory board member of the Action for Boston Community Development, Hispanic Center advisory committee. She also is an affiliate member of the Latino Professional Network, where she served as a board member in 2002 and 2003 and the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce in Boston. 

Panacopoulos earned a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Finance from North Adams College and a Master in Business Administration from Simmons College School of Management. She has completed higher education executive trainings at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Real Estate and Northeastern University.