BOCY back on track as central bank approves board

* To pay €4,000 fine for bonds

The new Bank of Cyprus board of directors has finally received the official go-ahead from the Central Bank and will now proceed to find a new CEO to steer the bank through its restructuring plan.
Already, after the shareholders’ meeting on September 10, the board had elected Christis Hasapis, an economics professor at the University of Cyprus, as chairman, with Vladimir Strzhalkovskiy, one of six Russians on the board, as vice chairman.
Of the 49 names contesting board seats, the remaining members of the board elected by shareholders are as follows, only one of whom was from the interim board: Anshakova Anjelica, Chichikashvili Dmitry, Gialelis Marinos, Hadjipapapas Costas, Kalochoritis Marios, Katsaros Constantinos, Kurazov Erishkan, Lojevsky Igor, Papaconstantinou Adonis, Smetanin Anton, Vrachas Xanthos, Yiannas Marios, Yiasemides Andreas, and Zografakis Ioannis.
The new board may elect another two members.
Governor Panicos Demetriades and the Central Bank came under criticism for delaying the screening of the candidates for the board, whose names were known five days prior to the AGM.
Meanwhile, the central bank imposed a nominal €4,000 fine on Bank of Cyprus for its misselling of convertible bonds to investors, a far cry from the €2.45 mln that it could have imposed on now-dissolved Popular Laiki and €1.22 mln on Bank of Cyprus.
In his justification sent to the Bank of Cyprus, Demetriades identified “gaps and weaknesses in the procedures when issuing the capital bonds in 2009, including the lack of objective and proper information to investors.”