Bank of Cyprus, Greek banks gainers in Jan-November deposits

Cyprus bank deposits rose 18% to 68.7 bln euros from January to November, while deposits advanced 2.6% in November from the prior month, according to a central bank announcement.
The top gainers in the deposit segment were Bank of Cyprus, the National Bank of Greece (Cyprus), EFG Eurobank and Piraeus Bank which gained 1.3%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.1% y-o-y, respectively. Marfin Popular Bank and Alpha Bank lost 0.8 and 0.5% y-o-y, respectively, while both the Coops and Hellenic Bank lost a significant share of 2.0% and 0.9% y-o-y, respectively.
On the lending side, the most active players were Marfin Popular, Bank of Cyprus and the Coops which added 1.4%, 0.9% and 1.1%, respectively to their market shares reaching 17.1%, 24.3% and 20.0%. EFG Eurobank lost 1.5% y-o-y, whilst both the National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) and Piraeus Bank gained 0.3% each.
The main reason for the increase in deposits was Russians transferring funds to the island, which benefited both Greek and Cypriot banks, Constantinos Loizides, managing director of Piraeus Bank in Cyprus, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
Deposits at units of Greek banks in Cyprus have risen 27% since the start of the year to 7.4 bln euros to November, compared with 7 bln euros in June. Deposits at Greek banks on the island peaked in May at 7.5 bln euros as clients in the country transferred money to Cyprus on concerns Greece would default, restructure its borrowings or abandon the euro and impose restrictions on capital flow.