PARLIAMENT last night passed a law designed to enable cooperative banks to raise capital on their own so as to minimise their need for possible state assistance.The government-drafted legislation makes it mandatory for cooperative credit institutions to issue shares for the purposes of raising capital, by converting cooperatives from unlimited liability to limited liability companies.By law, all 92 cooperatives have now been converted into limited liability shareholder companies. The cooperatives are allowed to issue class B shares, and to purchase class A shares in addition to class B shares... 3 comments

Parliament approved on Tuesday an EU bailout including provisions to impose substantial losses on bank depositors and wind down one of the... 17 comments

 ALTHOUGH the House yesterday passed more tax bills deemed key for Cyprus to qualify for a foreign aid package, a question mark still hung over whether a fractious parliament would sanction the actual loan agreement to be concluded soon between the government and international lenders... 21 comments

THE €10 billion aid deal to save Cyprus from bankruptcy has been thrown into fresh uncertainty with news that the island’s  fractious parliament will vote on the final package.The surprise vote has only just been scheduled, and early signs are that nearly half the members of the 56-seat parliament may oppose the bailout, seen as vital to keep Cyprus in the euro zone.The Greens Party said yesterday its sole parliamentarian would vote to reject the deal, becoming the first party to announce its intentions.However, the Communist AKEL and Socialist EDEK parties, which together have 24 seats, have been vocal in their opposition to the bailout, and are seen as likely to vote against, although there is some chance they may abstain instead... 53 comments

 THE FIRST of a new batch of bailout-linked bills tabled to parliament yesterday includes scaled cuts in public sector salaries and pensions, a hike on the corporate tax rate from 10 to 12.5 per cent and an increase to 30 per cent of the tax rate on interest income.The fiscal measures are necessary for the government to qualify for a €10 billion bailout from international creditors following an agreement struck last month. More bills are on the way... 11 comments

THE House Ethics Committee will look into whether parliament was misled by the Central Bank (CBC) governor over the terms of reference of an investigation into the island’s banking debacle. House President Yiannakis Omirou said if the committee finds there is a case, it will draft a report and send it to the plenum for discussion. If the plenum judges there is an issue of misconduct, the case will be referred to the attorney-general, or a parliamentary investigating committee will be set up, Omirou said. The investigation into the banking collapse was assigned to Alvarez and Marsal, whose reports were leaked to the media last week... 4 comments

 BANK staff across Cyprus held a two-hour strike from 12.30pm until 2.30pm yesterday before marching on Parliament from their union ETYK’s headquarters as part of a protest to protect their pension funds and jobs.Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the House around 4pm chanting: ‘Provident Funds belong to our children’ and ‘Get your hands off our provident funds and our jobs’. Banners saying: ‘You are murdering our future and our dreams’ and ‘Years of hard work are being given a haircut’ were carried by angry demonstrators. ... 4 comments

THE HOUSE last night decided to postpone a vote on a motion calling on the President to sack the governor of the Central Bank, with MPs asking for more time to ensure such a move was legally airtight.The motion was tabled by Greens deputy Giorgos Perdikis, but 49 MPs voted to postpone discussion to a later date.Initially it was designed to ask for the resignation of Central Bank chief Panicos Demetriades; it was then amended calling on the President to initiate procedures for the termination of the governor’s services.However, during a parliamentary debate before the plenum, the Attorney-general warned MPs of the legal intricacies, one of which could be that the European Central Bank might have something to say about it... 9 comments

THOUSANDS of school and university students in Nicosia protested against the bailout memorandum and the troika yesterday outside parliament and at the presidential palace.Students met at Solomou Square in old Nicosia at 10am and marched from Diagorou Street to parliament and then onto the presidential palace. They were escorted by police as protesters held banners reading: ‘People fight. They are drinking our blood’, and ‘You have destroyed our future and our dreams.’ Protesters also shouted slogans like ‘Troika go home’ and ‘Troika out of Cyprus’, substituting the usual word ‘Turks’ in the more-familiar version of the chant: ‘Turks out of Cyprus’... 20 comments

PARLIAMENT last night approved bills providing for the resolution of banks and putting capital controls in place and was also poised for a dramatic U-turn on taxing big savers as it raced to clinch a bailout from the European Union to avert financial meltdown.The island’s legislature also adopted a law that creates a “solidarity fund” whose purpose would be to fund banks and contribute to the state’s financing.In a session that ended just before midnight, MPs approved a bill that allowed the government to split the island's failing lenders into good and bad banks, a move that caused uproar as it will be used to resolve the Popular Bank... 135 comments