Industrial production in June 2017 rose to the highest level of the past 10 months according to data released recently by the Statistical Service of Cyprus.

A clearer picture of the findings at the Cyprus’ Onisiforos-West 1 region of Block 11 is anticipated to emerge within the next few days.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (“CySEC”) has issued a summary of the changes to passporting arrangements and conditions governing the provision of investment services and activities by third country firms that will result from the implementation of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU, commonly known as MiFID II, and Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 (“MiFIR”). MiFID II and MiFIR have been transposed into Cyprus law by Law 87(I)/2017 and the new provisions will apply from 3 January 2018. Law 87(I)/2017 expressly adopts the provisions of MiFID II, including a number of discretions that member states had been granted the option to adopt in transposing MiFID II.

Moody’s Investors Service said that it upgraded the foreign-currency deposit rating of RCB Bank by two notches to B1 and its baseline credit assessment to B2 citing its strong solvency and the expected continuation of its links to Russia’s state-owned VTB Bank, owner of 46.3% of its shareholding.

Deposits in the country’s banking system recorded an increase of around half a billion euro in July while loans declined by €358.7 million, data released recently by the Central Bank of Cyprus show.

The Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) received applications for six-year government bonds for physical persons, the 9th series (September 2017), valued at €6.49 million.

Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest lender said that it generated in the first six months of the year a net loss of €554m compared to a net profit of€54m in the respective period of 2016 on increased provisions.

Bank of Cyprus’ chief executive officer John Hourican said that the island’s high levels of delinquent loans of roughly half of the banking system’s total loans requires a change in the values of Cypriot society as they pose a fragility for the economy.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said that while the government plans to keep its citizenship by investment scheme inplace, it may consider a cap on the number of beneficiaries, already exceeding 1,000 since 2013, according to press reports.

APS Holdings aims at reducing the ratio of Hellenic Bank’s delinquent portfolio to a quarter of current levels possibly in the medium-term, and sees opportunities in the recovering real estate sector even as the current legislative framework to reduce bad loans requires improvement, a director said.