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”.

The editorial quotes FBME’s lawyer, former Cyprus Attorney General Alekos Markides, that the actions of the CBC have been malicious and incompetent, saying these accusations have substance. It refutes the CBC’s claim that it had no option but to take over the branch of FBME in Cyprus (just two working days after the original FinCEN allegations in July 2014). The newspaper stated that the CBC could have asked FinCEN for evidence while working with FBME’s owners to refute the claims. Anyone who has followed this case since the beginning will know that this website has been exhorting the CBC to take these actions from the start.

A full copy of the editorial is available at http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/04/13/our-view-cbc-bungling-over-fbme-could-cost-taxpayer-millions/