Angry protesters, mainly bank employees, spontaneously are gathering outside the Cypriot Parliament after the news Laiki (Cyprus Popular Bank -CPB) will close down. “In less than 10 minutes after the news, people took to the streets,” state broadcaster RIK reported.
Police units rushed outside the Parliament, minor clashes took place and tear gas use.
Video:
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The news was made public short after the Cypriot cabinet started to meet. Local media, reported that Laiki employees union were informed that the bank will close down.
RIK TV 06:05 pm: Laiki bank employees were orally informed about the closure. Some speak about “resolution” of the bank, that is splitting and restructuring of the bank.
A couple of minutes later, a press officer of Cyprus Central Bank dismissed Laiki closure news on RIK TV.
picture @AndreasKakaris via Twitter
Should Laiki close down, 2,500 people will immediately lose their jobs.
As for customers’ assets, 100,000 euro deposits are guaranteed by EU law.
No further details were made on whether the bank will be split into “good” and “bad”, with the good part to be offered to a new owner.
Anxious Cypriots run to withdraw money from PB ATMS on Thursday amid fears and rumors the bank would close. Also bank customers in Greke subsidiaries withdrew as much as they were allowed to.
Cyprus Popular Bank or Laiki formerly known as Marfin Popular Bank) is the second largest banking group in Cyprus behind the Bank of Cyprus. Trading on the island as Laiki Bank (Laiki being the Greek word for Popular), as of September 2012 it holds a 16% share of the market in loans and a 14.4% share of deposits. It is 84% state owned since 30 June 2012. Its shares are listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange and the Athens Stock Exchange. CPB has a network of more than 478 branches in Cyprus, Greece (where its subsidiary Laïki Bank operates), Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, the UK and Malta.
In 2010 the company was selected to as the bank of the year in Cyprus by the Banker.
to be continued…
Rumours, not facts, will bring the whole thing crashing down, I am afraid.
What also might bring down the whole thing is what REUTERS is allegedly reporting. They report that they have seen the minutes of the tele-conferencing of civil servants of the euro-counties. And apparently The Cypriot colleagues were not taking part. The French representative was putting it this way: “The Cypriot parliament is clearly too emotional and it will not take any decisions. The fact that they are not even able to participate in this consultation, shows we are in deep trouble. Something like this we have never seen.”
Here’s another eye opener for you. As recalled by the Maltese representative at the meeting last Friday when the Great Bank Robbery was planned.
Prof Scicluna Maltese Minister of Finance
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130319/opinion/cyprus-a-lesson-for-life.462258
enough with the links. have no time to delete them.
KTG is going CRAZY as the end of the world approaches.
He is a blur of activity!
I also gathered my supplies: After 8, bread, pop corn, coca cola, butter, cat food. (Shit, forgot the milk and breakfast cereals for 1?2?3?4/ weeks)
Cyprus had 10 years to clean up their act. They didn’t. When they joined the euro-zone they had more years to do that. They didn’t. To be fair, there was not a real ‘red-flag’ mechanism in place. That came last year with the stress tests. But they didn’t act.
Since October the negotiations were going on around Cyprus’s problems. They didn’t come up with one single proposal of their own. The 15% haircut for +100K savings was proposed in January. Until last Thursday night Cypriot diplomats were convinced that this was just a ploy to let them agree to other points. So they didn’t come up with any other plan.
No, Ephilant, I don’t need short sited eye openers like your quote. It is all very clear: The Cypriot political class was, just like their Greek counterparts, totally not prepared to act on anything. Sit tight, relax and don’t act so all the problems will go away in time. Well here is an eye opener for them now: it won’t go away.
Only after the decision of last weekend and the panic that caused in the obvious totally unprepared and uninformed Cypriot population the Cypriot political class is scrambling. Their plan B entails:
Nothing euro-new-speak there. Just Cypriot-speak.
That solidarity fund is of course DEADLY, because this would be devastating for pensioners, for the small people. This instead of the 15% haircut on large depositors? Or even this instead of the 6% for those who HAVE money in the bank?
And for the Russians? Well they are simply not interested.
My sources? Greek newspapers. So, even in Greece there still are people who see things as they are. At least that is a source of some hope to me…
what I really need to know is the real Russian motives lol
Apparnetly Putin asked for a “Lagarde List” of names and amounts held by Russians in Cyprus…
Funny how you and a few (government friendly?) newspapers insist on being much more informed about the whole thing than somebody who was actually present at the meeting and has the nerve to speak out of line, like Nessa Childers did.
Meanwhile, the actions by Nessa Childers, Irish MEP and the public statements made by amongst others Martin Schultz (admitting by the way, that contrary to what everybody, including your newspapers, have been saying, we are indeed paying for the failings of a private banking system, and not bailing out our countries!) should tell you there is a lot more truth in this than meets the eye.
There is absolutely no disagreement with the inaction of politicians and bankers being very much the cause of this mess, and not just in Cyprus. But the “Holier than Thou” status being given to some of the biggest gangsters going, being the unelected elite led by the likes of Barosso, Van Rompuy and Draghi, and their dogs the Troika is simply mind boggling.
These maniacs highjacked the EU and use it for their personal enrichment and playground. What is even more mind boggling is that an obviously intelligent individual like yourself cannot see through the smoke screens and refuses to see these guys for self serving power maniacs and money junkies they are.
Instead of claiming that their actions are even the remotest sense aimed at sorting this mess, you might want to wake up to the fact that that is the very last thing they are interested in. Their only interest is personal gain, lots of it, and you, I and millions of others in the EU and elsewhere will pay for that. These people are far worse, and much cleverer, than your so despised Greek Nomenklatura.
Remember this, there are no evil Russian oligarchs, there are no corrupt Greek oligarchs, as there are no saintly European oligarchs. There are only oligarchs, and they are all “een stinkende pot nat”.
ok sorry.
Apparently the bank is not “closing down”, it’s being “restructured”. In EU speak, that translates as “expensive”, check the cost of the “orderly wind down” of Anglo Irish, and it’s “restructuring” into the “Irish Bank Resolution Corporation” in Ireland. At stands at some 86 billion, so far…
And isn’t it funny thaat this “restructuring” happens to be announced just when the Parliament is voting on “Plan B”. this would not be a message from the EU, saying ” Vote yes, or else…” would it?