Cyprus

Cypriot leaders not discussing revised bank levy

by fm

21st March 2013

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1 min read

A revised levy on bank deposits is not on the table of crisis talks on Thursday between Cypriot leaders scrambling to raise billions of euros to clinch an EU bailout, the parliament speaker said.

"We didn't discuss a (deposit) haircut and we are not reverting to it," speaker Yiannakis Omirou told reporters.

The deputy leader of the ruling Democratic Rally party, Averof Neophytou, said he did not expect the "Plan B" to be ready for a parliament vote on Thursday, after lawmakers on Tuesday rejected a levy on bank deposits.

He said party leaders had unanimously agreed to create a "solidarity fund", which officials say would bundle state assets as the basis for an emergency bond issue.