doe, they do a form of due diligence on a country's finances ...but it doesn't help if they lie as the Greeks did!!!

Waves to Doe
It doesn't help when having lied and 'cooked the books'. Greece threatened to veto the admission into the 'EU club' of Poland and others , if Cyprus was not allowed in. ( All member states have to agree)

I read an article by some BBC journalist saying that 'Cyprus has had a gun held to its head by the EU'.,
Rubbish, Cyprus had the option to leave the EU/euro and declare itself bankrupt, then nobody would have got anything.
If the bank fails, you as a depositor (although the FSA like to call you an investor) become a creditor and you get in the pecking order behind the share holders, the bond holders and the insured accounts.

The EU has brought ruin to Cyprus? No their government/politicians and the bankers did that all by themselves.
We are all fed up of bailing out the bankers, so good, let those who had put money into bonds and were getting 11% and 12% interest, let them take a 40% haircut.

Whoever mooted the idea to raid the accounts of those with less than €100,000 - he deserves to be hung from the nearest lamp post - that's after we have all thanked him for letting us know that they will stop at nothing to keep this EU/Euro failed scheme alive.
Now we all know not to trust a word of what they say, now we all know not to keep more than £85,000 in bank accounts, now we all know (I hope) that ditching Sterling for the Euro, is dead and buried.

I'm selling mattresses cheap.

Sanji wrote:

I'm selling mattresses cheap. ;)

You're not going to sell any just yet, Sanji....
Banks are still closed and as yet there's no indication been given to the banking staff about the restrictions when they do. Quoted in today's mail they "may" have a meeting about it this afternoon...

A couple of hours ago, they fired the BoC board of directors: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/bank-cyprus/new-bank-boards-fired-restructuring-underway/20130327

And, banking staff are now threatening strike action tomorrow - if they open!

So, you could be having a "Sale" rather than a "run" on the mattresses

Joy, oh joy to be in Cyprus right now....

Oh well Shell the people of Cyprus turned down the haircut, so it hasn't happened, I hope they knew what they were doing?

Instead all they have is a standard corporate insolvency of a business that goes on all over the world every day. They let Laiki Bank go bust for good or ill. Everyone with over €100,000 Euros will lose the rest I guess, schools, charities, a poor soul who has just deposited €300,000 to buy a house will now have to look for one at €100,000 or less.

They will all just be creditors of a bankrupt bank waiting in line in seniority order, after the shareholders, the bond holders. Lets face it depositors are always last in line in a bankruptcy, maybe a sensible haircut might have been better?

I suppose they needed the 9 billion euros from Europe just to pay back the €100,000 guarantees as I'm sure that the Cyprus Government haven't got that money, mismanaging things so badly they have had to borrow from Europe just to meet their obligations under the guarantor scheme.

Bit odd that some have been caught out by this as it has been mentioned that Laiki and BoC have been insolvent for years, you only have to look at the start date of this thread & this is only a holiday forum not an ex-pat forum or a finance/money forum.

Odd that the Capital Controls are only in place for 7 days, seems a bit unrealistic, think Iceland still has them after a number of years.

Hope it doesn't affect you and your husband personally Shell and that your jobs will continue OK.

Just my thought as usual.

Doe

.

Hi Doe,

I've a feeling they will review the controls on a weekly basis rather than them only being in place for 7 days...

I'm the only one who has paid employment in Cyprus and I work for an offshore company which keeps no money in Cyprus so as far as we can see, business is carrying on as normal. The only problem we have is our salaries are paid directly into the Laiki bank so we need to know what will happen for our next salary payment which is on the 10th of next month.

Our company now has the headache of opening accounts at other banks to allow for the staff to have more choice of where to have their money paid into.

We're not personally affected by any other matters. We managed to withdraw the ready cash available in the 2 ATM accounts we hold during the recent closures and that's the money we work with each month in any event. It's just a case of remembering to have cash with you as some places will accept a card and others won't.

We have one other account which we haven't been able to access but my other half will go down later this afternoon to see if there's a way they can issue us with an ATM card for the future. But we may well withdraw most of our funds and just leave a small amount there as we've really no idea what's going to happen next. We don't have much money in there but it's enough to get us and our animals back home to UK should we need to in the not too distant future.

Moody's indicated late last night they feel Cyprus will soon be out of the Euro so I think I would prefer to have my Euros in my hand rather than them getting converted overnight into Monopoly money...

Sounds like you are not in too bad a position Shell with you company being off-shore.

I guess as the government turned down the haircut and just let Laiki go bust, anyone with 100,000 or less in Laiki accounts will transfer to the Bank of Cyprus.

Perhaps your Company will automatically have an account opened for them there, or existing accounts transferred across via compter systems.

Presumably there are quite a few other banks in Cyprus, and eventually your company may be able to open accounts in one of those to transfer your salary into. Especially if they don't want to be involved in this kind of Good Bank/Bad Bank situation that will no doubt prevail for a while.

Just IMHO, I can't see the Euro going away for many years, too many people are too far down the line with it now. If it had only been in place a couple of years then maybe so, but too many have a vested interest in it succeeding (or do I mean not failing, not sure if they are one and the same or slightly different?)

Doe

The Moodys comment was that Cyprus will stop using Euro currency but that was apparently one of the pre-requisites for Cyprus joining the EU. Although I do not recall that being made public.

Should this happen - then Cyprus will be a bad place to be for investors and the whole country will need a complete reshuffle financially.

Yesterday seemed to go all according to plan with no hassle at the banks or in the queues, much to the disappointment I feel for the press who were covering it. It was commented that in some instances there were more press outside the banks than people waiting!

We're still not quite certain regarding restrictions on the movement of cheques but will wait to visit the bank until after Tuesday of next week as it's another public holiday here on Monday.... We're approaching our 3rd short week in a row. Very nice indeed!

Am keeping my fingers crossed for you, I can't make any intelligent comment really on the mechanism for Cyprus exiting the Euro, only thoughts are it is a small Island with a population of about a million and presumably has to import virtually everything.

I can't see a CPound being what it was worth years ago, so the currency might be worth half it's value overnight and then the cost of living would surely double which would be awful even devastating for the average person on the street.

The only people who might vaugley benefit would be the AI type of tourist, but tourism is down worldwide due to the global recession and there is also an awful lot of the world out there that tourists have to choose from.

a lot of the fresh food is locally grown/produced it will affect those who want their national favourites who will sufferer

Speaking yesterday with some of our Cyprus neighbours, I am pleased to say they are all managing well, they are tough people who have come through a lot in past years.After the initial shock of what has happened they will pick themselves up and start again, I am trying my best to encourage as many people as I can to visit this year. The economy needs a good summer to help get them through this.
No one has been without money throughout, only those who have not got cards and use a passbook have not been able to access their money, but they did not do without as everyone pulls together.

It is difficult times for them and I am determined to send as many holidaymakers there way as I can.

After the announcement yesterday that some people could face up to a 60% loss of bank deposits over and above €100k, the island is currently in a state of shock....

This at the moment is only indicated against BoC depositors, the Laiki has yet to be finalised. On top of this there's talk that big borrowers had huge loans written off in the days before the haircut. This is currently being investigated.

There's been call for a list of big withdrawals in the days leading up to the haircut announcement on 16th March too....

We're not out of the woods yet by a long chalk and it's indicated that many businesses will go to the wall.

"The Junior and Senior School of Nicosia, which teaches the British system to 900 children say school fees are paid into Laiki Bank, taking its deposits well over 100,000 euros. With huge losses, it will now struggle to pay staff salaries.

Those who recently invested proceeds from house sales will also suffer. There's talk of one university with a 6m-euro EU grant in its account.

The Bank of Cyprus holds about a third of all deposits in Cyprus so an enforced loss of up to 60% will have a dramatic impact."

More here on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21982652

We're now seriously considering pulling all of our cash out of the other bank where we have no ATM card. Not a lot as I indicated previously but enough to get us and our pets back to UK should we need to do so.

Oh dear that doesn't sound too good Shell especially the writing off big loans, sounds a bit corrupt,

You would think if they were going to make exceptions to the arrangements it would be for institutions like schools, who is going to teach the kids if either private or public schools fail and go into receivership

It's so wrong if chosen individuals have had their loans written off. How on earth will the Country get back on its feet ?

The Cypriot politicians have got a lot to answer for they seem to have let everyone down. I don't think the EU/Merkel have much faith in them implementing things properly and not coming back to the ECB for yet more money. Its just the pigheadedness of them not wanting the Euro to fail that is keeping things going.

Have you got a house to come back to here Shell if you do decide to come back?

Not that we are exactly in a great shape ourselves financially, but at least we blame our own politicians and past and don't blame, the Turks, the Greeks, the Germans, the EU etc The Cypriot government need to man up and get on with it, sort out a decent tax system for a start.

Maybe what you are experiencing is the initial aftermath and things will normalise over the coming months, at least you have a job there, it's not that easy to get a job here at the moment.

Tbh most who have a job here are clinging on to them like grim death, I haven't had a pay rise for three years and I know many others in the same boat. Everyone goes on about how easy it is in the UK but a lot of that is 'daily mail speak' the reality is Job Seekers Allowance is £53 (?) a week, which with UK prices now would be lucky to buy a weeks food shopping.

Don't make any rash decisions, the UK isn't going anywhere so you can take your time apparently there are plenty arriving from Bulgaria and Romania at the moment so I am sure there will be room for two more.

Was going to say Happy Easter, but not sure if folk over there are feeling it, maybe Easter is a different weekend as well.

Doe

Hi Doe

No - we have no property in UK. We sold a 2 bedroom terraced property in Lancashire 9+ years ago paying off the balance of the mortgage and cards etc.

More stuff just appearing on Facebook now from a Greek newspaper insinuating relatives of the president transferred over €21m in the last 3 days or so before the haircut was officially announced. I hope this isn't true as that will not bode well for him.

Maybe we will look at Gib if we have to make a move. I work in online gaming so may have opportunities there.

Hi Shell

Gibraltar sounds like it might be worth investigating. Regarding Facebook, forums etc sometimes at times like this you can read too much, probably better off reading an Agatha Christie, seems like there is little the ordinary person can do while the Politicians carry on with their games. In a way not having a property can be a good thing as you can pack up and move on, provided you can earn enough to cover rent and bills you have a lot of flexibility.

On-line gaming is here to stay, it's a world wide phenomenon.

Doe

Sorry to say that Cyprus was built on Russian money how much was legit who knows the big problem now is that money will stop and it will get worse before it gets better.
To steal savers money is very bad and the EU/Germans to agree to this just shows it was right for the UK to stay out of the Euro and its time to get out of the EU altogether.

qatarman wrote:

Sorry to say that Cyprus was built on Russian money how much was legit who knows the big problem now is that money will stop and it will get worse before it gets better.
To steal savers money is very bad and the EU/Germans to agree to this just shows it was right for the UK to stay out of the Euro and its time to get out of the EU altogether.

Ironically if you read any of the ex-pat forums for Cyprus, they are blaming virtually everyone for this apart from Cyprus. They seem to have conveniently forgotten that there were representatives from the Cyprus Government in all the meetings, and their government were sent away for about a week to come up with their own deal/solution.

They seem to be blaming Gemany, Finland, some bloke in Holland, the EU in general, even the Brits (not sure how that works as resumably our taxes go into the EU coffers that stump up the 10 billion loan?) at the same time they are saying with glee that the UK will of course be next to crash - charming they must all hate the UK, whilst collecting their pension, £300 fuel allowance, disability allowance and spending all their time training their satellite dishes to get UK TV for free oh and gloating that they pay no Council Tax.

Reminds me of alcoholics ie to get the cure you first have to realise it is you that is ill and not blame everyone else.

Doe