EU deal emerging to shut Cyprus bank, inflict losses

[ThePythonicCow]

From http://www.sharenet.co.za:




* EU sources say deal to shut Laiki, transfer insured deposits

* Cyprus nearing Monday deadline to seal EU bailout

* Without deal banks face collapse, possible euro zone exit

* President said to threaten resignation if pushed too far

By Annika Breidthardt and Jan Strupczewski

BRUSSELS, March 25 (Reuters) - Cyprus reached an outline deal with international lenders for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout that would shut down its second largest bank and inflict heavy losses on uninsured depositors, an EU spokesman said early on Monday.

The tentative deal emerged after fraught negotiations between President Nicos Anastasiades and heads of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - hours before a deadline to avert a collapse of the banking system.

The draft proposal, which still has to be approved by euro zone finance ministers, would save the Mediterranean island from financial meltdown by winding down Popular Bank of Cyprus , also known as Laiki, and shifting deposits below 100,000 euros to the Bank of Cyprus to create a "good bank".

Deposits above 100,000 euros, which under EU law are not guaranteed, would be frozen and used to resolve debts, and Laiki would effectively be shuttered. The EU spokesman said no levy would be imposed on any deposits in Cypriot banks.

A senior source involved in the talks said Anastasiades had threatened to resign at one stage if he was pushed too far. A first attempt at a deal collapsed last week when the Cypriot parliament rejected a proposed levy on all deposits.
More at http://www.sharenet.co.za/news/EU_deal_emerging_to_shut_Cyprus_bank_inflict_losses/ff9ba93e3390f4fa145d0b51e64444d6

[ThePythonicCow]

Joseph P. Farrell weighs in today with his second installment to the discussion of Cyprus.

Yesterday, in his first installment at CYPRUS: CLASH OF OLIGARCHIES AND GEOPOLITICS, PART ONE (http://gizadeathstar.com/2013/03/cyprus-clash-of-oligarchies-and-geopolitics-part-one/), he observed that:

Cyprus was an “offshore banking haven” and as such enjoyed large deposits from Russian oligarchs;
When Russian intelligence picked up on the rumored seizure of accounts in Cyprus, they withdrew billions from the island, making it highly likely that at least some of the targets of the actions of Western banksters were indeed those Russian funds.
Today in his second installment at CYPRUS: CLASH OF OLIGARCHIES AND GEOPOLITICS, PART TWO (http://gizadeathstar.com/2013/03/cyprus-clash-of-oligarchies-and-geopolitics-part-two/), he writes of the clash of powers between Russia and the European Union, concluding:




So what is going on here? I take a view very close to The Daily Bell (here (http://www.thedailybell.com/28856/Central-Banking-Fail-The-Message-Sent-May-Not-Be-the-One-Received) and here (http://www.thedailybell.com/28863/Was-the-Cyprus-Crisis-a-Mistake)), that the grand experiment called the EU is unravelling, as reality and rhetoric increasingly come into conflict, and the central banksters increasingly resort to raw, naked blackmail as a matter of policy(a big mistake in my opinion). We can at least be grateful that the whole episode is exposing the central banksters for what they have always been: Parasites, and fundamentally, thieves masking behind the cloak of legitimacy that their monopoly money power grants them.
He then wonders, cryptically, leaving the door open to more installments of this high octane speculation, "And all this brings us to the quiet presence that’s been hovering in the background of the Cyprus affair, and to what – high octane speculation time again folks – may really be going on: Germany."

[Calz]

Could Cyprus Banking Crisis Trigger a War?

Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Mar 22, 2013 - 11:50 AM GMT

By: LewRockwell


Eric Margolis writes: Realizing they will never be a world power, the Cypriots have decided to settle for being a world nuisance. ~ George Mikes, Hungarian writer

Cyprus is a big pain in the neck for one and all. Its banks are bust due to reckless lending to Greece. The sunny island is a beehive of tax evasion, money laundering, dodgy trade and espionage.


Now, the threatened bankruptcy of Cyprus has triggered the latest European financial crisis.

Russian businessmen and the Russian Mafia have some 30 billion euros stashed away in Cyprus. Russians make up the second largest biggest cohort of Greek Cyprus’ 869,000 people. Some 260,000 ethnic Turks live in the isolated Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which no one but Turkey recognizes.

A 10 billion euro EU bailout is in the works. But the Germans, who will have to fund most of the rescue, are loathe to rescue the Russian mob, and who can blame them?

So the Germans seem set on punishing the wayward Greek Cypriotes and their Russian pals by trying to impose a tax on local bank deposits. This ham-handed plan triggered outrage and fear across Europe, and may ignite a run on banks in Cyprus and Greece. Moscow is furious.

But there’s much more to the Cyprus crisis than its dubious banks. Cyprus has bedeviled Europe and world diplomacy since 1974, then Greek Cypriot far rightists staged a coup and sought union – or "enosis" – with mainland Greece. Turkey promptly intervened with 30,000 troops to protect Turkish Cypriots in the north. Many Greeks fled or were expelled to the south.

Europe and the UN have been trying to sort out the Cyprus mess ever since. After decades of mind-numbing negotiations, former UN chief Kofi Annan proposed a sensible deal in 2004 for a Greek-Turkish federation. Turks accepted, but Greek Cypriots blocked it. Britain, which has two important air bases in Cyprus, backed the status quo.

In the same year, the EU committed the grave error of admitting Cyprus as a member without first insisting that Greek Cypriots agree to a peace deal and Greek-Turkish federation.

Northern Cyprus was left in limbo while the south became part of the EU, assuring the island’s ugly dispute would be come part of the European Union. Cyprus should never have been admitted to the EU.

Europeans who opposed Turkish membership in the EU used Cyprus as a pretext to delay admission, infuriating Turkey.

After decades of patient work developing normal relations after centuries of conflict, Greece and Turkey are again up in arms again over Cyprus. Their dangerous problem of overlapping air and sea claims in the Aegean has revived - just when Greece must slash its bloated military budget.

It gets worse. Very large underwater gas deposits were recently discovered between Cyprus and Israel. Both Cyprus and Israel, who are to jointly develop them, could become energy exporters. They have become very close allies.

"Not so fast" say Cyprus’ Turkish minority. ‘That gas also belongs in part to us!" Ankara insists the gas must be shared and has sent ships to back its claim.

Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria are also advancing claims to the "Aphrodite" gas field off Cyprus -shades of the tense South China Sea. But most likely to clash are the Turks and Israelis.

Turkey is still boiling mad over the Israeli seizure of a Gaza bound relief ship in 2010 and the killing of nine Turks.

Israel has emerged as a major backer of the embattled Greek government, using its influence in Washington and financial clout.

Russia, increasingly interested in the Greece-Cyprus-Syria region, says it will keep a nine-ship squadron in the eastern Mediterranean as Moscow’s worries over Syria, now under western siege, grow by the day. Moscow is hinting that it mighty bail out Cypriot banks in exchange for the lion’s share of the "Aphrodite" gas fields.

All the elements are in place for a very nasty, dangerous multi-party confrontation in the eastern Mediterranean. The EU could have pre-emptied this danger by using a bank rescue of Cyprus to force Greek Cypriots to make a sensible peace deal with their Turkish neighbors. And by forcing Cyprus to fairly share the offshore gas bonanza with neighboring states. But it probably won’t.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article39600.html

[Erich]

This article seems excessively focused on race, nationality, identity, etc....


Could Cyprus Banking Crisis Trigger a War?

Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Mar 22, 2013 - 11:50 AM GMT

By: LewRockwell


Eric Margolis writes: Realizing they will never be a world power, the Cypriots have decided to settle for being a world nuisance. ~ George Mikes, Hungarian writer

Cyprus is a big pain in the neck for one and all. Its banks are bust due to reckless lending to Greece. The sunny island is a beehive of tax evasion, money laundering, dodgy trade and espionage.


Now, the threatened bankruptcy of Cyprus has triggered the latest European financial crisis.

Russian businessmen and the Russian Mafia have some 30 billion euros stashed away in Cyprus. Russians make up the second largest biggest cohort of Greek Cyprus’ 869,000 people. Some 260,000 ethnic Turks live in the isolated Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which no one but Turkey recognizes.

A 10 billion euro EU bailout is in the works. But the Germans, who will have to fund most of the rescue, are loathe to rescue the Russian mob, and who can blame them?

So the Germans seem set on punishing the wayward Greek Cypriotes and their Russian pals by trying to impose a tax on local bank deposits. This ham-handed plan triggered outrage and fear across Europe, and may ignite a run on banks in Cyprus and Greece. Moscow is furious.

...

[ThePythonicCow]

Another summary of the draft deal from Jesse's Café Américain (http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2013/03/its-risk-back-on-as-sources-cite-draft.html) quoting Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/us-cyprus-parliament-idUSBRE92G03I20130325)




Cyprus and EU agree on draft proposal to rescue banks
BRUSSELS | Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:05pm EDT

(Reuters) - Cyprus, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have agreed a new plan to resolve the island's bank and finance a rescue of the country, an EU official said early on Monday.

The proposal, which will now be presented to euro zone finance ministers for discussion, will involve setting up a "good bank" and a "bad bank" and will mean that Popular Bank of Cyprus, known as Laiki, will effectively be shut down.

Deposits below 100,000 euros in Laiki will be transferred to Bank of Cyprus. Deposits above 100,000 euros, which under EU law are not insured, will be frozen and will be used to resolve debt. It remains unclear how large the writedown on those funds will be.

The EU spokesman said there would be no "levy" imposed on any Cypriot banks, with the package requiring a full "bail-in" of uninsured depositors, which is likely to mean heavy losses for those with large holdings in Laiki and potentially Bank of Cyprus, where many Russians hold bank accounts.

[Cidersomerset]

Channel 4 news article earlier highlighting Northern Cyprus.


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[andrewgreen]

Has kind of a feeling of the reported beginning world war 1.

[sigma6]

Propaganda - as the Russians said they would finance them. There's no real threat to any "bank collapsing" (other then someone literally stealing funds out of the bank...) since suitors would be lining up in droves. I still say this is a dirty underhanded knife slash at Russia. Classic Western hypocritical dirty politics as usual. They are simply stealing money. Period. And stealing from the Russian Elites, and giving to themselves (the new poor) Lol

Talk about not even playing by their own rules... pathetic. This is a perfect example why everyone has to get "out of" the statutory government system, because the reality is, when push comes to shove, there is no REAL LAW. ONLY Corporate "Policy"

STATUTORY LAW = CORPORATE POLICY. Another way of saying MIGHT is RIGHT.

If the world could only see the true picture, ie. who is the scumbag (Western Controlled EU Bankers in this instance), and who is at least trying to build a world of independent sovereign states... And just like Libya, the true story comes out.... water and gas.

[Calz]

Another interesting post from Farrell regarding Cyprus and this time digging for a little "gold speculation" ... :moil:

____________________________________


CYPRUS, RUSSIAN RE-STRUCTURING, AND GOLD

April 17th, 2013 by Joseph P. Farrell


Now here’s two stories from our friends at RT(Russia Today) that put an even more interesting twist on the recent events in Cyprus. Before I offer an opinion on what they might mean, the articles themselves:

Russia to restructure €2.5bn loan to Cyprus

http://rt.com/business/restructure-loan-russia-cyprus-503/

Cyprus to finance bailout by selling €400mn of gold reserves

http://rt.com/business/cyprus-sell-400-million-gold-reserves-finance-bailout-639/



Now, let’s indulge in our usual high octane speculation:


1. Note that President Putin made the announcement at a joint press conference with German Chancellorin Angela Merkel. Message: Russia and Germany are in solidarity on the crisis, and determined to hold the EU together. Corollary message: Europe and Germany are not going to be subservient actors to London and New York. This message has also been strongly suggested by the German effort to repatriate its gold from the US Federal Reserve. In a word: there is a geopolitical realignment occurring right in this announcement itself. And it’s a huge realignment, a realignment that British geopolitics had long tried to prevent: that of Germany, and Russia.

2. Cyprus, in order to gain a bailout more favorable to it appears to have bowed to pressure to sell some of its gold reserves, and we can guess, in the context, who the ultimate buyers behind the scenes will be: Germany, and Russia. Message: we have no confidence in the western system of finance (and that means the euro, folks), but we’ll play the game a little bit longer until we have other pieces where we want them.

We are watching a great synchronicity here, for those who know it, Cyprus was once a colony of the Most Serene Republic of Venice. Then, too, the banksters of the day laid a heavy hand on the island, until it revolted. The revolt was crushed. But in its way, Cyprus then had lit a fuse, one that would not go out until the whole of Europe, fed up with Venetian corruption and duplicity, banned together to take out the banksters. It was called the War of the League of Cambrai, and it was only undone by (who else?) papal duplicity against its own allies in the form of the equally well-connected and duplicitous Pope Julius II (who, incidentally, was a della Rovere. They’re right up there, or down there, with the della Torre i Tassos [look 'em up, you'll recognize the German version of the family name]).

If the indicator we mentioned yesterday, a high Italian magistrate, is any signal of the future, this movement is only going to grow.

And watch for Germany and Russia to be quietly moving behind it.

See you on the flip side.



http://gizadeathstar.com/2013/04/cyprus-russian-re-structuring-and-gold/