Cyprus allows new bank accounts to be opened - 5 thousand minimum deposit , you can't close the account for three months and monies deposited must be used to pay off loans at cyprus banks ! Gosh , folks will just run to sign up for this deal ......

Cyprus eases restrictions on new bank accounts Cyprus’s Finance Ministry is allowing new accounts to be opened at the country’s banks for the first time since the country was bailed out in March. However, there are a number of conditions for the new accounts. The ministry said in a statement on Friday that fixed-term accounts must be opened with at least 5,000 euros cash and can’t be closed for three months. Also, the new current accounts can only be used to pay off loans at any Cypriot bank. Authorities have been gradually lifting restrictions that were imposed in March to prevent a bank run after Cyprus agreed on a 23-billion-euro rescue package. A condition of the deal was for depositors in Cyprus’s two biggest banks to take steep losses on savings over 100,000 euros. [AP] House working to limit CBC powers over new BoC By Stefanos Evripidou PARLIAMENT IS working to limit the powers of the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) as the resolution authority over the former Laiki (Popular) Bank and wrestle control of the majority shareholding in the new Bank of Cyprus (BoC) from the Laiki administrator, it transpired yesterday. When the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) recently completed its recapitalisation process to come out of administration, the largest single shareholder turned out to be the former Laiki, represented by its administrator who… Read More One quarter of BoC staff applied for voluntary retirement Bank of Cyprus said on Friday that a quarter of its staff had applied for a voluntary retirement programme that would help cut its annual personnel expenses by about 35 per cent. The lender, which recently imposed a bail-in on depositors, forcing the conversion of 47.5 per cent of savings exceeding e100,000 into equity, said 1,370 employees would be leaving the group. “Successful completion of the voluntary retirement scheme is an important step towards the group’s restructuring,” the bank said… Read More