Hellenic Bank has officially taken control of the operations of the state-owned Cyprus Cooperative Bank (CCB), with officials saying the transition went without a glitch.

Unemployment rates in Cyprus dropped further to 7.7% in July 2018, from 7.9% in June 2018, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Standard and Poor’s rating agency upgraded Bank of Cyprus’ long-term credit rating to B+ from B citing the sale of non-performing exposures (NPEs) amounting to €2.7 billion and the pricing of a €220 million Additional Tier 1 Capital amounting to €220 million.

The end of the workday on Friday 31 August 2018 will see the end of the island’s Co-operative sector after more than a century and the birth of the cooperative asset management company (Kedipes) which will be tasked with handling the billions in non-performing loans, which caused the Co-op bank’s failure.

The 2018 Cyprus Country Report features interviews, detailed sector profiles and cutting edge insights from Cyprus’ most influential political, economic and business leaders.

The government generated a fiscal surplus of €514.7m on a cash basis in the first seven months of 2018, compared with €217.2m a year before, the statistical service said.

The amount on deposit in the Cypriot banking system rose by €796.4m in July 2018 in a month to €50.9bn, the highest since March 2013, amid an ongoing deleveraging which reduced total credit by €74.7m to €46.2bn, the lowest in more than ten years, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

Irish Banker John Patrick Hourican will remain at the helm of the Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest lender, until the end of 2020.

Bank of Cyprus said that it generated a net loss of €55.8m in the first six month of 2018 compared with a €553.4m loss the previous year and that it agreed to sell a large amount of its non-performing loans portfolio.

As Hellenic Bank officially takes over parts of the Co-op bank by the end of the week, its management is assessing which branches to shutter, an executive said recently.