FINANCE: Bank of Cyprus backs down on charges hike after outcry

Following public pressure, Bank of Cyprus has postponed introducing increased customer charges for transactions carried out with the assistance of a cashier at its branches.

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The new increases were dropped in the wake of bad publicity after MPs crusaded against what they deemed to be “merely punishing consumers who do not have the skills or the means to carry out their transactions online”.

Bank of Cyprus announced its U-turn after a meeting with the head of the Ruling Democratic Rally Party (DISY), Averof Neofytou who had launched the campaign with posts criticising the bank charges on social media.

In an announcement BoC’s CEO Panicos Nicolaou defended the initial decision to increase charges as part of their digitisation roadmap, however, as he claimed, “it has been proven that Cypriot society is not yet ready for such a big change”.

Arguing the charges that were to be introduced did not make the bank the most expensive in Cyprus, added that their main aim was to encourage clients to digitalise their transactions, especially using their mobile phones.

“Already, 75% of our transactions are done through digital channels, and our largest branch today is the customer's mobile phone.”

Nicolaou also said that the new charges reflect the cost of transactions, adding that BoC intends to absorb a significant portion of the cost.

He noted that reports regarding the digital readiness of Cyprus, show that we are not competitive when it comes to new technologies which are to play an important role for growth and employment in the years to come.

“Big organisations need to push the economy and society to step up digitisation of the country. But we do recognise that some of our fellow citizens are still unable to switch to digital services.”

Neofytou did not hide his “absolute satisfaction” with the suspension of new bank charges and said with prudence solutions can always be found.