The Bank of Cyprus announced the successful repayment of the approximately $12 billion Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) yesterday.
The bailout was
provided by the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Bank of Cyprus announces that it has today fully repaid the ELA funding it has been receiving from the Central Bank of Cyprus,” according to the bank’s prepared statement.
As part of the loan agreement, the Cyprus government closed
Laiki Bank, the country’s second-largest.
The agreement also required that Bank of Cyprus accounts above roughly $105,000 receive a
47.5 percent “haircut.”
Since the bailout loan, the bank has been restructured. This
included absorbing the assets of Laiki and selling its own assets, as necessary, to stabilize the country’s banking system.
A large portion of the ELA was
repaid with funds transferred from Laiki; the remaining $4,006,959,455 billion was covered by the bank.
“The full repayment of ELA funding has been a strategic
objective of the bank over the past three years and signifies the normalization
of the bank’s funding structure,” Bank of Cyprus Group CEO John Hourican said. “This should further strengthen stakeholders’ confidence
that the bank is becoming a stronger, safer and a more focused institution
capable of delivering appropriate shareholder returns over the medium term.”
