Cyprus-Forum.com

[Marian]

Icleand banks collapsed because they had a high intrest rates on Icleandic Korona. Wich creates a big stream of money form low intrest rates countries like Japan, Switzerland. ( you borow 1Mln yens at 0.1% and you convert it to Icleand Kronor and then you put it to Icleand banks at 15% ) so you got 150K in one year without moving you bottom. This is called "Currecy carry trade" - nothing new in finance, so a lot of banks did it.

And the question is where does the Icleand banks had that money to give back 15% intrest.
They simply invest in mayor export goods form UK which is exotic derivatives papers stright form city of london.
And probaly some form Wall street. And once it appeard that they are worth nothing ( lehman went under ) they lost a lot of money. Any they simply bankrupted.


So if you compare that to cyprus you don't have it in Cyprus. Check you intrest rate on you saving account - is it more than 3%???


And if it comes to house prices collapse, wich probably will happen. Most of them ( but don't know how big %) are bough for cash ( not mortage ) or mortage in UK , So if people will stop paying back the repayments uk banks will suffer. Not Cypriot.


But on other hand what is bad is that Cyprus doesn't produce/sell anything. Like UK.

And other thing wich you can check is to ask in your bank what is the "Required reserve" in cyprus banks. - This is verry important. It gives you the clue of how much money are put on risk form your savings.


/cheers

[pissouri]

2 differences between Cyprus Banks and banks in Iceland are as follows:

1. Iceland interest for deposits 16% +
2. Iceland 100% mortgages

The rest is history

[souroul]

not even close

if we still had the CYP it would have been very probable. not with the euro tho.

[pissouri]

Cyprus pound was still backed by Gold, not saying that if still with CY pound would have been worse. But Cyprus banks are very much healtier than other Euroean banks

[Oracle]

Bank of Cyprus eyes 15% loan growth in Greece-CEO

Wed Feb 4, 2009 7:13pm

ATHENS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Bank of Cyprus (BoC) (BOCr.AT: Quote, Profile, Research) BOC.CY expects to grow its loan portfolio in Greece by 15 percent this year, about the same as in Cyprus, its chief executive told a news conference on Wednesday.

The group, Cyprus's largest lender, is also present in Russia, Romania and Ukraine, and increased its loans by 22 percent in Greece last year and by 25 percent in Cyprus.

"Our loan portfolio will expand by about 15 percent, meaning we will lend about 1.5 billion euros ($1.96 billion) in Greece this year," BoC CEO Andreas Eliades said.

A day earlier BoC announced that 2008 full-year net earnings grew 4 percent to 506 million euros, below its previous forecast of 540 million, and guided for profit of 300 million euros to 400 million euros this year.

BoC is not taking part in the Greek government's 28 billion euro bank liquidity support scheme aimed at ensuring the economy is adequately funded.

Cyprus has said it has no need for a bank bailout package because its banking system's fundamentals are sound.

Eliades said he expects profits in Russia to grow by 50 percent this year. BoC holds an 80 percent stake in Uniastrum Bank, acquired in October 2008. The Russian operation had net profit of 16 million euros last year.

BoC, with cash and equivalents of about 9 billion euros at the end of 2008, is planning securitisations of about 4 billion euros this year to further strengthen its liquidity.

"We... hope to complete about 4 billion this year to be at an even better position to fund the economy," Eliades said. "About 1.0 billion will be mortgages."

Eliades also said the group plans to expand its network in Greece and launch 10 new branches this year. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Sharon Lindores)

© Thomson Reuters 2009

[yialousa1971]

Bank of Cyprus eyes 15% loan growth in Greece-CEO

Wed Feb 4, 2009 7:13pm

ATHENS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Bank of Cyprus (BoC) (BOCr.AT: Quote, Profile, Research) BOC.CY expects to grow its loan portfolio in Greece by 15 percent this year, about the same as in Cyprus, its chief executive told a news conference on Wednesday.

The group, Cyprus's largest lender, is also present in Russia, Romania and Ukraine, and increased its loans by 22 percent in Greece last year and by 25 percent in Cyprus.

"Our loan portfolio will expand by about 15 percent, meaning we will lend about 1.5 billion euros ($1.96 billion) in Greece this year," BoC CEO Andreas Eliades said.

A day earlier BoC announced that 2008 full-year net earnings grew 4 percent to 506 million euros, below its previous forecast of 540 million, and guided for profit of 300 million euros to 400 million euros this year.

BoC is not taking part in the Greek government's 28 billion euro bank liquidity support scheme aimed at ensuring the economy is adequately funded.

Cyprus has said it has no need for a bank bailout package because its banking system's fundamentals are sound.

Eliades said he expects profits in Russia to grow by 50 percent this year. BoC holds an 80 percent stake in Uniastrum Bank, acquired in October 2008. The Russian operation had net profit of 16 million euros last year.

BoC, with cash and equivalents of about 9 billion euros at the end of 2008, is planning securitisations of about 4 billion euros this year to further strengthen its liquidity.

"We... hope to complete about 4 billion this year to be at an even better position to fund the economy," Eliades said. "About 1.0 billion will be mortgages."

Eliades also said the group plans to expand its network in Greece and launch 10 new branches this year. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Sharon Lindores)

© Thomson Reuters 2009

Good news.