BOCY holds board meeting at ex-Laiki Tower to calm nerves

The Bank of Cyprus interim board of directors held a meeting in the former Laiki headquarters building in Nicosia to convey the message to the merged group’s 5,500 employees that the restructuring and recapitalisation plans are underway.
The bank plans to shed some 1,250 jobs offering early retirement incentives to employees with more than 25 years of service.
“We wanted to send a clear message to the Cypriot people that the choice of venue for our board meeting reflects the merger efforts and the joint mission that the workforce of both banks are called upon to implement,” said BOCY board chairman Sophocles Michaelides.
“The board members have a deep sense of duty for the responsibilities they have been called upon to undertake and are focusing all their efforts on the systemic role the bank has to play within its historic responsibility as the platform for growth of the Cypriot economy.”
The Bank of Cyprus, that was forced to be merged with the resolved Popular Laiki and absorb some 9.5 bln euros in ELA support funds, was handed a provisional opening balance sheet by the Central Bank of Cyprus last week with about 13.8 bln euros in assets from the “good bank” operations of Laiki. Market analysts suggest that the capitalization rations of BOCY thus seem in a better than expected state.
However, the bank has yet to get a CEO, three weeks behind schedule while the continued capital controls imposed on all customers are continuing to cause unjustified havoc to businesses, primarily to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that are suffering the most and shutting down at a rapid pace.