Depositors with money in Greek branches of Cypriot banks will find the institutions closed on March 19 and 20 as part of a plan by Cypriot authorities to prevent access to account holders on the island before up to 9.9 percent of their money is confiscated to satisfy international lenders as part of a bailout scheme.
Greek authorities insisted that the Greek branches won’t be affected and that depositors’ money is safe there and won’t be taxed but went along with the decision by Cyprus to close the branches for two days. The Greek government said it is going to have a Greek bank absorb them.
The banks are being closed to prevent a run on them by depositors worried over the unprecedented tax levy and fearful the rest of their monies aren’t safe either. The Cypriot Parliament is set to vote on March 18 on whether to accept the plan put forth by Eurozone officials who said a 10 billion euros ($13 billion) bailout will be withheld otherwise.
New Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, in office only a few weeks after being elected on a promise to oppose the ban which he accepted shortly after gaining power, said the country’s banks will collapse unless Cyprus follows the orders of its lenders the same way Greece has in accepting $325 billion in two bailouts from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB).
Cyprus’s three top lenders, Bank of Cyprus, Popular Bank and Hellenic Bank have all branches in Greece. Bank of Cyprus and Cyprus Popular will also not open for trade on the Athens stock exchange on March 19-20, a source at the country’s stock market regulator said.
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