The Cooperative Credit Institutions have been nationalized by 99% following a €1.5 billion capital injection it received by the state, which last March agreed with the Troika (EC, ECB and the IMF) on €10 billion bailout which also featured the conversion of 47.5% of deposits over €100,000 in a bid to rescue its largest bank, whereas Cyprus Popular Bank, the island`s largest lender, has been wound down. The CCB has assigned Egon Zehnder to select a number of candidates for the job.

"We are in the short list of five candidates," President of the CCB Committee Hadjiyiannis told CNA. The new CEO will implement the restructuring plan, one of the preconditions for the capital injection, that will see the reduction of the CCIs operating in Cyprus from 93 to 18. Hadjiyiannis also told CNA that the CCB is in the process of creating a centralized unit for the management of non-performing loans, estimated to be at 40%. "We must clean our books from non viable assets," he said. Furthermore, the CCB President said the bank will implement by the end of December salary cuts and a targeted voluntary exit scheme so that the reductions in cost will be in effect by the 2013 financial results.

Source: Financial Mirror