Busy week as Cyprus Co-ops start implementing restructure

A chain of decisions related to the restructuring of the nationalised Co-operative Credit Institutions (Co-ops), as expected from a roadmap in accordance with an international bailout, will start to be implemented from Monday, according to press reports.
The official Cyprus News Agency said the process to fill the position of the head of the unit that will undertake the management’s restructuring plan unit will be completed this week. A second position for the person to head the legal department will also be announced this week.
The process was carried out by PwC which completed a series of personal interviews and prepared the short list of candidates, among which a name will be announced over the next few days.
The Co-ops completed personal interviews with candidates to head the legal department.
Furthermore, the process to fill the position of the head of the department that will deal with the recovery of non-performing loans has already been completed, while the implementation of the voluntary early retirement scheme (VRS) for Cooperative staff will also start on Monday.
The staff will be given a time limit to choose the plan by the end of March, when the merger of all Cooperative Credit Institutions will be completed.
The VRS plan is for 10% of the 3,000 co-op employees to exit through voluntary redundancies, particularly targeting those over 45, with the aim of saving about €14 mln from 2015 onwards.