The Cyprus Development Bank (CDB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have signed a deal to help finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The CDB signed the agreement with the EIF on March 27 to act as he financial intermediary in Cyprus for the Multiannual Programme for Enterpise and Entrepreneurship under the SME Guarantee Facility.

The CSE Council has sent a detailed letter answering to the questions asked by MPs, members of the House Finance Committee and now hopes that the draft law amending the CSE law and the operations of the Central Depository will be finalised and tabled before the last Parliamentary session of 13 April 2006 for a

Hellenic Bank shares managed a breakout on the charts, while BOC shares continued to trade in positive territory and Laiki shares were locked in a tight traingle formation, according to Financial Mirror chart analysis. BOC BOC titles are trading in a long term up channel with the lower boundary at CYP 3.80 and the upper

Marfin Financial Group is reported to have asked the Central Bank of Cyprus permission to raise its stake in Laiki Bank from the current 9.98% to 20%, in a move that is related to an attempt to create a new banking group involving the two institutions and Egnatia, in which recently Marfin assumed a controlling

Bond markets had a rocky time towards the end of last week as expectations altered of rate rises in different markets. On Friday US jobs data showed stronger than expected employment growth, and therefore pointed to another rate increase for the dollar. Some 211,000 new jobs were added to the payroll in March. Meanwhile on