Bank of Cyprus

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

The post-crisis picture shows that the domestic credit sector has undergone big changes, with almost 12,000 jobs gone and about 1,000 fewer bank branches, while 13 banks have disappeared from the banking map in what has been an unprecedented restructuring as a result of the need to adjust to the new reality that brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy.

Bank of Cyprus will make a decision on whether to proceed to a share capital increase or not at the end of June, after reporting its first profit in seven quarters on Friday, saying it was on track on deleveraging and improving the quality of its loan portfolio.

First-quarter profit after tax was 31 million euros after a 103-million-euro loss in the last quarter of 2013.

Bank deposits in Cyprus rose last month for the first time since December 2012, the central bank said on Wednesday, but that was only possible due to money from outside the European Union.

Net deposits increased by 266.3 million euros in April after declining 247.2 million euros in March.

Cypriot banking group Bank of Cyprus has sold loans extended to Serbian real estate company Robne Kuce Beograd to Piraeus Bank of Greece, it said on Thursday.

Bank of Cyprus will release some of the 933 million euros of deposits still frozen under a recapitalization of the bank last year, it said on Wednesday. [Reuters]

Bank of Cyprus said on Monday that it is looking “positively” at a revised offer to sell its loss-making PJSC Ukrainian unit to Russia’s Alfa Group as part of a restructuring drive.

Bank of Cyprus’s 225-million-euro sale of its Ukrainian bank is on track to happen within weeks, Chief Executive John Hourican said in an interview on Monday.

The bank announced on January 31 that its Ukrainian operations would be sold to Russia’s Alfa Group.

[Reuters]