The Bank of Cyprus should, the soonest possible, come out of the resolution regime, said Monday Acting Government Spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos.
He said this is something which the government has been calling for in the past few months. “We have made it known in all directions and in every way that the Bank of Cyprus should exit the soonest possible the resolution regime to rebuild trust both at home and abroad in our banking system”.
Papadopoulos explained that as “we want to attract investments to Cyprus and help Cypriot companies to be active overseas, we have to deal with the issue of trust in our banking system”.
Regarding the government’s view on former non executive president of Laiki Bank Andreas Vgenopoulos, he said “the government does not want to comment on matters that are before justice. The matter is before the Cypriot justice and we fully trust it will take a decision on the matter.”
The Special Administrator of Laiki Bank, Andri Antoniades, has obtained, under her general mandate, interim orders against Andreas Vgenopoulos, Efthimios Bouloutas, Kyriakos Magiras and Marfin Investment Group Holdings SA. Under these orders, their assets have been frozen.
The BoC is currently undergoing a resolution process, following a Eurogroup decision to impose losses on uninsured deposits, as part of a €10 billion bailout financial assistance to Cyprus. Along with the Bank’s interim Board, Sorotos, a former Deputy Governor of Bank of Greece and Country Corporate Officer of CITIBank for Greece, will draft a restructuring plan for BoC and will take the administrative reins of the Bank until the shareholders General Meeting which will appoint the new Board and the Bank’s senior management.
The Eurozone Finance Ministers, collectively known as the Eurogroup, decided to provide a €10 billion financial assistance to Cyprus, after imposing losses to uninsured bank deposits in a bid to recapitalize the island`s troubled banking sector, heavily exposed in Greece. As part of bailout, Bank of Cyprus, the island`s largest lender, absorbed the good part of Cyprus Popular Bank (insured deposits and loans) which will be wound. Furthermore, 27.5% of uninsured deposits in BoC have been converted into equity, whereas an additional 22.5% remains frozen until an evaluation of the Bank`s assets.
