Financial system

Cyprus’s central bank took control of the Cypriot branch of a Tanzanian-based bank on Friday, a day after the United States called it a “financial institution of primary money-laundering concern.”

The Central Bank of Cyprus said that acting under the authority given to it by law, it had assumed the administration of operations of the FBME Bank branch on the island from Friday.

Greece raised 1.5 billion euros from the issue of a three-year bond on Thursday with a yield of 3.5 percent, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Athens said it received orders worth 3 billion euros. It had been expected to raise between 2.5 billion to 3 billion euros but faced lackluster demand following concerns about the health of a parent company of Portugal's largest bank.

Local banks need to make a fast return to private hands, Alpha Bank CEO Dimitrios Mantzounis stressed while addressing the lender’s general meeting on Friday. Vassilios Rapanos, the bank’s president, referred to a need for stability and the implementation of reforms.