sailingaway
03-19-2013, 12:50 PM
and note the picture they chose -- pure coincidence, I'm sure:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/03/20/business/global/20cyprus/20cyprus-articleLarge.jpg
NICOSIA — The Cypriot Parliament rejected an international bailout package on Tuesday that had sought to tax bank depositors to pay a big part of the bill, despite a revision that would have exempted small bank accounts from the levies.
The main party of President Nicos Anastasiades’s government coalition had said it would abstain from voting, a stance that virtually assured the measure could not succeed.
Mr. Anastasiades and the Europe Union and International Monetary Fund are likely to return to the negotiating table. Analysts had also raised the possibility of bank runs, at least in Cyprus, and a cut-off of financing to Cypriot banks from the European Central Bank if the measure did not pass.
Cypriot banks has been closed since Monday for a bank holiday that has been extended through Wednesday. But the lack of a bailout could mean banks might not re-open even on Thursday.
The governor of the Cypriot central bank governor, Panicos Demetriades, warned lawmakers on Tuesday that as much as 10 percent of the €65 billion in deposits placed in Cypriot banks would flee the country as soon as banks’ doors open again, if Parliament did approve any plan to tax banking deposits.
Mr. Demetriades also cautioned that the revised plan that Mr. Anastasiades had submitted Tuesday would fall short of the €5.8 billion Cypriot contribution that the international bailout negotiators have demanded.
The bailout plan, negotiated over the weekend, had aroused harsh criticism in many quarters for its unprecedented inclusion of ordinary bank depositors — including those with insured accounts — among those who would have to bear part of the cost. That provision, at the behest of German negotiators among others, was put in place to penalize the many wealthy Russians who have plowed money into the banks of Cyprus, which has long been seen as a tax haven and a hub for money laundering.
The Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin had condemned the tax as unfair. And on Tuesday, Russia’s envoy to the European Union, Vladimir A. Chizhov, said in Brussels that the levy was “similar to forceful expropriation” and warned that “the whole banking system can collapse,” Reuters reported.
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/business/global/cyprus-set-to-reject-tax-on-bank-deposits.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&_r=0
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/03/20/business/global/20cyprus/20cyprus-articleLarge.jpg
NICOSIA — The Cypriot Parliament rejected an international bailout package on Tuesday that had sought to tax bank depositors to pay a big part of the bill, despite a revision that would have exempted small bank accounts from the levies.
The main party of President Nicos Anastasiades’s government coalition had said it would abstain from voting, a stance that virtually assured the measure could not succeed.
Mr. Anastasiades and the Europe Union and International Monetary Fund are likely to return to the negotiating table. Analysts had also raised the possibility of bank runs, at least in Cyprus, and a cut-off of financing to Cypriot banks from the European Central Bank if the measure did not pass.
Cypriot banks has been closed since Monday for a bank holiday that has been extended through Wednesday. But the lack of a bailout could mean banks might not re-open even on Thursday.
The governor of the Cypriot central bank governor, Panicos Demetriades, warned lawmakers on Tuesday that as much as 10 percent of the €65 billion in deposits placed in Cypriot banks would flee the country as soon as banks’ doors open again, if Parliament did approve any plan to tax banking deposits.
Mr. Demetriades also cautioned that the revised plan that Mr. Anastasiades had submitted Tuesday would fall short of the €5.8 billion Cypriot contribution that the international bailout negotiators have demanded.
The bailout plan, negotiated over the weekend, had aroused harsh criticism in many quarters for its unprecedented inclusion of ordinary bank depositors — including those with insured accounts — among those who would have to bear part of the cost. That provision, at the behest of German negotiators among others, was put in place to penalize the many wealthy Russians who have plowed money into the banks of Cyprus, which has long been seen as a tax haven and a hub for money laundering.
The Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin had condemned the tax as unfair. And on Tuesday, Russia’s envoy to the European Union, Vladimir A. Chizhov, said in Brussels that the levy was “similar to forceful expropriation” and warned that “the whole banking system can collapse,” Reuters reported.
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/business/global/cyprus-set-to-reject-tax-on-bank-deposits.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&_r=0