CYPRUS: Ancoria Insurance launches retail, SME bank

Ancoria Insurance, a Cyprus-based life insurer since 1987, is launching a banking subsidiary that will deal primarily with retail and small to medium sized (SME) financing.

Ancoria Bank has just been issued a banking license by the Central Bank of Cyprus and is expected to start its operations next year with two branches, one in Nicosia and one in Limassol.
The bank’s shareholders are, by majority, Ancoria Insurance, a company of Swedish origin, one of its founders Sievert Larsson and the Sievert Larsson Scholarship Foundation, as well as a number of Cypriot investors.
The bank said in an initial announcement that it will employ “cutting edge technology” and will boast a “high capital adequacy” rate, especially now that EU-wide banking supervision is transferred to the European Central Bank.
Ancoria is an international insurer with more than 22,000 clients. It employs 34 people in the Nicosia offices and specialises in customised life insurance policies that are underpinned by investments in a wide range of funds, structured products and equity trading.
Ancoria was initially set up in 1987 by two Swedish visionary entrepreneurs Roger Akelius and Sievert Larsson, then called Alpha Insurance. In 1994, Alpha was renamed Akelius Insurance and formed part of the Akelius Group of Companies until 2008. Now totally independent, highly successful and with a solid background and extensive experience in the industry, the company has grown to become Ancoria Insurance Public Ltd., with its solvency margin over 300%, well above that required by the European Union directives. The company’s major shareholder is the Sievert Larsson Scholarship Foundation.
For information contact the Ancoria Bank Communication Office, Tel. 22551550, email: [email protected]