Cyprus

I'm glad to hear that the pound is creeping up. At the moment it is worth half what it was when I first went to New Zealand and the thought of transferring what's left of my life savings to an NZ bank is eye watering right now.

I'm not sure it will affect us very much as we are outside the Eurozone. I noticed yesterday that the £ is still moving quietly upwards against both the $ and the € since the slump a couple of weeks ago. Of course if it goes too high it will affect our exports but then the imports will be cheaper.

My cousin is coming over from Portugal soon so I will be interested in her opinions

Does anyone remember how Northern Rock's interest rates for savers topped everyone else's and their mortgage deals were more generous?

I was surprised the Stock Markets and Bond Yields were so reasonable today.

I note that the banks in Cyprus are reportedly being ordered not to open as planned tomorrow but open on thursday.?

It is a sad state of affairs. It has been stated by many for a long time, for which they were castigated, that the Southern European countries did have a lax tax regime to say the least, now we all see it unfolding. The 2 Cypriot banks in question did offer higher rates and I guess the depositor should have considered any severe problems, knowing what happened in Iceland. I do however find the conditions of the EU/IMF very harsh and I think it is a very worrying situation for all Eurozone countries. Spain, Portugal and Italy must be quaking in their boots right now.

I too have found the Cypriot people to be warm and hospitable and I feel so sorry for them and their country. It also has a potential to effect on us and our economy, tragedy all round.

That's a bit harsh, about a government that doesn't exist yet. No reason to suppose UKIP would squander money like that gillybob And when they get in they wouldn't have the nerve (or the opportunity) to access EU funds like Greece did.
Spain still building a very fine high speed rail lines through the middle of mountains though. And if the present lot stay in here long enough we'll have one through the chilterns. Ours will be cheaper.

Yes JessM exactly. Some would say "that they had it coming". Sadly it all stems back to greed.

.....and Greece, glammanana.

What really worries me (and I hate arguing politics) is that our next government will no doubt adopt a similar attitude to that of Greece, Cyprus and Spain building roads that go to nowhere, buildings that no-one wants or pays for, in order to "create jobs". eventually after the slight boom comes the giant bust.

And Ireland. Lots of paying in cash and in kind, returning favours etc was going on.

It was similar in Spain the only ones who paid their business tax's where mostly English.

Exactly Absent. We have friends in Cyprus who have businesses and they quite openly "brag" about not paying any tax using the exact same remark as you quote. "if you pay tax on your business then you should sack your accountant".

I will be brutally honest and say that this was inevitable and had to happen eventually. The Cypriots are not particularly hard working either (not sure why anyone would think that they are?). They tend to have a very laid back attitude to work.

Having said all of the above. I love Cyprus the country and its people and will be very sad to see its demise. This will no doubt cripple the already fragile tourist trade on which they heavily depend.

At the same time glammanana lots of them were very naughty about paying tax. The saying was that if you paid tax on your business, you should sack your accountant. Home, chickens, roost.

I feel so sorry for them,the Cypriots are such hard working people and don't deserve this at all.

A Cypriot businessman said in an interview this morning that he thought it would take longer to get over this than it did to get over the war in the 1974–5. Some people stand to lose as much as 40% of the money in their accounts so I don't think he was being unduly pessimistic.

Frank as stated most banks are all belonging one group and they may not have the same system as they do here in UK might they ? I feel so sorry for the business's concerned they have salaries/rent/mortages/stock and homes to fund the tourist business looks very shakey indeed.

absent just seen the latest news report and it certainly does not seem very promising does it ?

If you have accounts in several banks in the UK that belong to the same group, it is regarded as one account for the purposes of compensation and only the regulation sum (£85,000?) will be guaranteed.

As far as Cyprus is concerned, the second largest bank is going down the tubes and will not be rescued.

glammanana

What I was thinking in terms of if say in the UK you had £80,000 in Barclays, £80,000 in Lloyds, £80,000 in HSBC and £80,000 in Nat West you would have far more than 100,000 in the UK banking system but less than 100,000 euros with one bank so your money would in theory be covered if all those banks went bust.
If you had the euro equivalent of the deposits I have just mentioned in 4 different banks in Cyprus would you be subject to the tax?.

Frank

I would imagine it would be if you had £100.000 in one bank which is not a lot if you are running a business,six months out of twelve when we lived abroad we would bank more than that on a monthly basis so if business's are showing this level of activity I would imagine they will be liable for the tax.

Does anybody know if the tax applies to people who have more than 100,000 euros in one Cyprus Bank or is it if they have more than 100,000 in the Cyprus banking system overall?.
Most people know if you have less than £85,000 in one bank in the UK it will be protected even if you have £10,000,000 in other banks.

Frank

I heard yesterday in a news broadcast that they had been as high as 6% when the rest of the banks were paying the very low ones.

Can anyone tell me what the interest rates have been? The media keeps saying they have had higher rates than the rest of Europe for a long time but do not say what they were.

It is bound to hit some people who are not rich too. Just imagine someone who has sold their house and banked the money while waiting for a new home to come through.

Seems governments are doing their best to put people off saving.

Cyprus banks pay higher interest rates.

Really?! Wow!

j08 Yes you do.

I totally agree with you Frank. It could be so unfair on people who have worked hard to look after their retirements and such.

They are not all rich Russian oligarchs. NO! I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SPELL THAT!