MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – Andreas Artemis, head of Bank of Cyprus, the country’s biggest lender, has submitted his resignation in the wake of a bailout deal that the Eurogroup reached with the Cypriot authorities to rescue the island nation from bankruptcy, western media reported on Tuesday.
Local media reported that Artemis had expressed his disagreement with the plans for the bank’s recapitalization as part of a deal to unlock much-needed 10 billion euros ($13 billion) in loans from international lenders.
The new bailout plan will spare all deposits of less than 100,000 euros, but force bigger losses on account holders with more than 100,000 euros in the country’s two biggest lenders, the Bank of Cyprus and Popular Bank of Cyprus (Laiki Bank).
Under the new deal, Popular Bank will be broken up and its deposits of less than 100,000 euros will be moved into Bank of Cyprus, which will be restructured. Popular Bank’s deposits of over 100,000 euros will be frozen and used to resolve its debts.
The new deal will force the holders of accounts of over 100,000 euros to take losses that may amount to 30-40 percent of their deposits.
The original bailout scheme that was proposed last week and caused outrage in Cyprus envisaged a one-off levy of 6.75 percent on deposits of less than 100,000 euros and of 9.9 percent on larger deposits to yield some 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in revenues for the Cyprus budget and unlock the much-needed rescue package from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
