Before provisions, the bank said it made a profit of €145m.

The CCB will also have to return some €111m to borrowers who were mistakenly charged with the wrong interest rate between 2007 and 2011.

The mistake concerns 11,323 accounts and has resulted in a drop in capital by €75m.

The CCB continues to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of 15.4% against the required minimum of 8%.

The lender’s non-performing loans dropped by €347m in 2016, a year in which it restructured a record €1.26bn in problematic advances.

Total deposits dropped 1.4% year-on-year in 2016, to €12.6bn

The co-operative sector’s deposit market share was 25.6% compares with 27.8% in 2015.

“Challenges remain heightened in 2017 since, apart from domestic competitive pressures, there is a need… for more ground-breaking and multifaceted actions to tackle and reduce non-performing loans,” CCB chief Nicolas Hadjiyiannis said. Such actions were in the pipeline, he added.

Source: Cyprus Mail