“Nothing unusual was noted neither was anything expected,” Aliki Stylianou, spokeswoman at the central bank said in an emailed statement in response to a press question. “The minimal controls which were in place until Friday were not prohibitive to capital transfers and as a result, no increased outflow as a result of the lifting of the restrictions was expected. The Central Bank of Cyprus is ready to face unexpected situation on a continuous basis, no matter whether restrictive measures are in place or not”. A source at Bank of Cyprus, the country’s largest lender, said that no unusual events happened today.

The capital controls remained in place for two years after the banking crisis of 2013, which culminated with the bankruptcy of Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, second largest lender at the time, and the recapitalisation of Bank of Cyprus with depositors’ money.

Depositors at Laiki lost all of their money in excess of €100,000 in March 2013, while those at Bank of Cyprus saw almost half of their deposits turned into equity. The government introduced capital controls in response in order to prevent a mass withdrawal of deposits in the banking system.

The Russian Commercial Bank said that the decision to lift restrictions will help the Cypriot economy recover at a faster pace.

“We welcome the long-awaited lifting of capital restrictions in the Cypriot banking system,” Kiril Zimarin, chief executive officer of the Russian lender said in an emailed statement today. “This development constitutes the end of a difficult era for the banking sector and the economy of the island at large. The lifting of these restrictions will most certainly contribute to a faster recovery of the Cypriot economy and its return to growth”.

Zimarin offered no details on how the lifting of the restrictions affected today’s operations at RCB.

“From our side, we can finally offer our wide range of services to more Cypriot customers who can now open accounts in a financially strong, trustworthy and profitable Cypriot bank,” he said.

Sources from Hellenic Bank, the second largest Cypriot lender, Eurobank Cyprus Ltd and Bank of Piraeus said that nothing unusual occurred following the lifting of the capital controls, which president Nicos Anastasiades announced on Friday.

“Those who wanted to transfer their money abroad either did so little by degrees from various Cypriot banks earlier or had the chance to do so very recently by transferring up to €1m a month which was the cap,” a Bank of Piraeus source familiar with the issue said, adding that there was no indication that depositors took advantage of the €1m cap to transfer deposits out of the country. “Therefore, the vast majority of the money destined to be transferred out of the country is already out of Cyprus. Besides, it is difficult for Cypriots to open up bank accounts abroad”.

Source: Cyprus Mail