30 April 2016
It has been confirmed that just 120 out of 6,500 insured depositors of FBME Bank’s branch in Cyprus have applied to the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) under its deposit protection scheme. This scheme pays a maximum of EUR 100,000 to each named account holder in a stricken bank – anything above this amount is lost.
17 April 2016
Cyprus’s leading English-language newspaper, the Cyprus Mail has lashed into the Central Bank of Cyprus’s (CBC’s) handling of the FBME crisis in a hard-hitting editorial that says the CBC’s bungling could end up costing “… the taxpayer hundreds of millions”.
16 April 2016
Writing on the American Banker website, Sharyn O’Halloran, a George Blumenthal Professor of Political Economy and a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, wrote that in its actions against FBME it is clear the “… overzealous FinCEN needs more oversight” from US authorities. She described FinCEN’s proposed punishments as “draconian”, and pointed to the “… glaring gaps in its administrative process and lack of substantiated claims in its pursuit of FBME, (which) suggest that FinCEN sleepwalked toward a predetermined outcome of simply wanting the institution closed”.
She added that “… it also appears that FinCEN’s targeting of the bank borders on unconstitutional,” and believes that in opposing FinCEN’s strictures FBME “… has a good case”. The full article can be accessed here: http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/overzealous-fincen-needs-more-oversight-1080438-1.html
12 April 2016
The employees of FBME Bank in Cyprus have gone on strike until further notice. They have walked out because of the unreasonable actions of the Special Administrator of the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), plus the overall behaviour and actions of the CBC and the Cyprus authorities. A statement has been issued by the employees which reads as follows:
12 April 2016
Mr Alekos Markides, a former Attorney General of the Republic and now legal advisor of FBME Bank Ltd made two separate interventions on state radio CyBC (12 April) and MEGA Television (9 April) in response to the recent activation of the Depositors Guarantee Scheme. He claimed that the Central Bank has lacked a strategy and is now merely trying to divert attention from its mishandling of the situation. Continue reading
10 April 2016
Following a series of unilateral, illegal, arbitrary and irresponsible actions by the Central Bank of Cyprus (“CBC”) the delayed announcement on 9 April 2016 that the Deposit Protection Scheme is activated is a welcome move, coming some 21 months after the Resolution Authority and the CBC acted against FBME Bank Limited (“FBME”).
6 April 2016
The Special Administrator of FBME Bank Limited Cyprus Branch has issued letters of termination to 136 employees supposedly to cut costs to safeguard deposits. The reason is, ostensibly, cost savings in order to protect depositors. Currently the Bank has capital and reserves of 162 million dollars over and above the funds available to cover all deposits and any cost saving would be deducted first from this. Accordingly, this purported cost saving has no benefit to depositors. Indeed, to the contrary, the ability of the bank to conserve its assets is adversely impacted because of the loss of staff.
27 March 2016
The purported “Final Rule” that FinCEN released on Friday, 25 March 2016, is not in fact “final” at all. It is subject to a preliminary injunction by a federal court in Washington D.C. that bars the rule from taking effect pending further inquiry by that court into the fairness, accuracy and legality of FinCEN’s process. The “Final Rule” is also subject, by its own terms, to a four-month waiting period between official publication and effective date. FBME has every right and intention to challenge the legality of the “Final Rule” so that the U.S. court can decide whether it should ever take effect.
11 February 2016
The former Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), Professor Panicos Demetriades, has written to FinCEN regarding its campaign against FBME in which he says he is “… most surprised by FinCEN’s actions relating to FBME”. This letter appears on the FinCEN website and is available to the public: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FINCEN-2014-0007-0069.
10 February 2016
Further comments on the FinCEN website regarding the agency’s handling of the FBME case were submitted by Sharyn O’Halloran, George Blumenthal Professor at New York’s Columbia University. In her letter sent to FinCEN and put into the public domain Professor O’Halloran explained that her specialist area is the study of US administrative processes, regulatory powers and oversight functions.
