Plans are expected to enter a more detailed stage in early September, when JCC Payments holds its first substantive meeting with members of the Association of Cyprus Banks (ACB).
The meeting will examine the technical and procedural requirements for a Cypriot service modelled on Greece’s IRIS system. The project is expected to be developed by JCC in cooperation with Greek interbank payments operator DIAS.
In practical terms, customers of participating banks would no longer have to enter or exchange an IBAN when making an eligible transfer. Instead, they would select or type the recipient’s mobile number through their banking application.
The bond, which can be called by Eurobank after six years, was priced at a spread of 98 basis points over the mid-swap rate.
Initial guidance had placed the pricing at around 125 basis points above mid-swap, implying a yield of approximately 4.54 per cent.
The strong demand allowed the bank to tighten the spread substantially before completing the €600 million issue.
The bond is expected to receive ratings of Baa1 from Moody’s, BBB- from S&P, BBB from Fitch and BBBH from Morningstar DBRS.
The transaction forms part of Eurobank’s strategy to meet and strengthen its Minimum Requirement for own funds and Eligible Liabilities (MREL) position by raising eligible capital through international markets.
The Affordable Housing Act is still being prepared, meaning no EU-wide rental cap, licensing quota or ban has been agreed. Instead, the Commission says publicly available data should be used to identify “areas of housing stress”, where national, regional or local authorities could apply proportionate measures to protect housing affordability, including measures affecting short-term rentals.
This is not a blanket EU crackdown. The Commission also says restrictions must be accompanied by policies to increase supply, including new construction, the return of vacant properties to use, additional social housing and simpler planning and permitting.
For Cyprus, the proposal arrives as platform-based accommodation continues to expand while the authorities are still struggling to establish how much of the market is operating legally.
According to a report from Reuters, the price reductions are part of a €1.2 billion investment by IKEA retailers across Europe, aimed at attracting cash-strapped consumers following two consecutive years of falling revenue.
“The cost of living is increasing and it’s getting tougher and tougher for many people,” said Juvencio Maeztu, CEO of Ingka, IKEA’s biggest retailer.
“For many people, home is a bedroom in a shared house, and it’s even more important to offer storage and organised solutions,” he added.
The clearest increase was recorded in apartments, whose values in the district climbed by 5.59 per cent from the previous quarter, according to the latest index from RICS and KPMG in Cyprus. House prices followed with a rise of 4.48 per cent, while office and warehouse values increased by 3.63 per cent and 3.39 per cent respectively.
The figures placed Larnaca well ahead of the other districts and reflected the wider strength of Cyprus’ residential market.
Across the island, apartment values increased by 5.42 per cent year on year, making them the strongest-performing property category. Warehouses followed with an annual rise of 4.22 per cent, ahead of houses at 4.04 per cent and offices at 3.69 per cent.
The negotiations place Cyprus, one of Europe’s leading maritime states, back at the centre of a dispute that divided the European Union last year.
Cyprus and Greece abstained when the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) extraordinary environmental session voted in October 2025 to postpone formal adoption of the Net-Zero Framework for one year. The measure had been approved in April but was not adopted, leaving its future open to further negotiation.
The Shipping Deputy Ministry subsequently explained that Cyprus had sought to create room for a broader agreement, supporting an IMO framework that was both ambitious and workable. A narrowly backed measure, it argued, could prove difficult to implement and encourage more regional rules.
Speaking at the opening of an international development seminar in Nicosia this week, Koumis pointed to a joint report by Oxford Economics and global tourism platform TOURISE, which presents Cyprus as a leading example of tourism resilience and market diversification.
The report, entitled ‘Resilience in a World That Doesn’t Reset’, examines 85 major tourism crises over the past 25 years and identifies diversification as one of the strongest safeguards against disruption.
In the case of Cyprus, it documents how the island responded to the loss of the Russian market following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while emphasising the tourism sector’s performance in 2024 and 2025.
The decline placed Cyprus at the bottom of the EU rankings, as overall tourism accommodation activity across the bloc increased during the first six months of the year.
Eurostat reported that there were 1.321 billion overnight stays in tourist accommodation across the EU between January and June 2026, up 1.7 per cent from 1.299 billion in the first half of 2025.
Cyprus was one of nine EU countries to record a decline in overnight stays over the period, with its 7.7 per cent drop the largest fall among member states.
The environmental authority said it had no objection to the development, subject to a series of conditions, and decided that a full environmental assessment was not required.
In its reasoned finding, dated August 27, the authority said the anticipated effects were not considered environmentally significant and could be managed through the proposed mitigation measures.
The decision followed an assessment of the project’s information report, a site visit and consultation with the Limassol district local government organisation.
However, the environmental finding does not amount to final planning approval. Construction is expected to begin once the remaining permits have been secured and is estimated to take around 24 months.
The estimate, measured using the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), puts Cyprus among the euro area countries experiencing a significant acceleration in price growth.
Cyprus’ inflation rate has now risen for the fourth consecutive month, increasing from 3.5 per cent in May to 4.1 per cent in June, 4.4 per cent in July and an estimated 5.2 per cent in August.
The latest rate is also substantially higher than the 0.0 per cent recorded in August 2025, marking a 5.2 percentage point increase over the past year.
The announcement comes following a previous corporate update issued by the company on July 1, 2026, regarding the payment schedule.
Demetra Holdings Plc on Tuesday also announced that it completed another share buyback transaction on August 31, 2026.
The repurchases were executed through the Cyprus Investment & Securities Corp Ltd (CISCO) at a price of €1.435 per share.
The decision was finalised during a board meeting held on August 31, 2026.
Neoptolemou will assume responsibility for the company’s obligations as an issuer of securities listed on the regulated market of the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE).
She takes over the CSE compliance role from Constantinos Servos, who previously held the position.
In addition to her exchange oversight duties, Neoptolemou has been named senior compliance officer for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.
The request was filed on August 31, 2026, after Alpha Trust Holdings’ ordinary general meeting approved the move at a meeting attended by the company’s sole shareholder, Alpha Bank, which held all 3,223,944 voting shares.
The shares, each with a nominal value of €0.36, represent the entirety of Alpha Trust Holdings’ paid-up share capital and voting rights.
The delisting decision follows the completion on August 24, 2026, of a squeeze-out process through which Alpha Bank acquired the remaining shares it did not already own.
The transactions were executed for an aggregate consideration of €7,281,686.71 under the group’s active capital management scheme.
The share repurchases were carried out as part of the company’s share buyback programme originally announced on June 4, 2026.
Trading commenced on August 24, 2026, when the company acquired 108,237 shares at an average price of €14.2021, totaling €1,537,192.70.
On August 25, 2026, Allwyn AG purchased 73,420 shares for €1,053,165.85, reflecting an average price of €14.3444 per share.
According to the announcement, the discussions took place during meetings with Pelagia Karpasiti, director of the Ayios Varnavas School for the Blind, and Kika Hadjikakou, director of the Georgios Markoudeaf school, as part of the consultation on the National AI Strategy 2032.
Together with staff from the two schools, the group considered the everyday difficulties faced by people with visual and hearing disabilities and identified areas in which AI could offer practical support.
At the centre of the discussions was the need for accessibility to be built into digital services and applications from the outset, rather than added later. The announcement said this would require the active involvement of people with disabilities and their representative organisations throughout the design process.
Seasonally and working-day adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) reached €7.87 billion between April and June, representing growth of 0.8 per cent compared with the first quarter.
The expansion was supported mainly by stronger activity in wholesale and retail trade, vehicle repairs, information and communication, financial services and construction.
Construction recorded the fastest annual growth among the main sectors, expanding by 5.4 per cent to €379.10 million.
The performance underscores a sustained growth trajectory for the national retail market, excluding motor vehicles, across both monetary value and real transaction volume.
The overall Turnover Value Index reached 161.1 units against the 2021 base average of 100 units, while the corresponding Turnover Volume Index climbed to 144.2 units.
Despite the monthly increase, Cyprus’ unemployment rate remained well below its level of 4.3 per cent in July 2025, indicating an improvement over the past year.
Eurostat estimated that around 21,000 people were unemployed in Cyprus in July, compared with approximately 20,000 in June and May and 20,000 in April.
The number of unemployed people in Cyprus was therefore around 1,000 higher than in each of the previous three months, but approximately 2,000 lower than a year earlier.
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