Cyprus surprise - Cypriot depositors to take a 'haircut'

wotsthat

Masomnia wrote: »

Wasn't there a court ruling recently that decided Iceland didn't have to compensate British depositors?

Sort of. I think Iceland have to repay the UK £2.3bn but payments don't start until 2016. The court ruling decided that no interest should be paid on the £2.3bn.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Don't think you've quite grasped the enormity of this if you are comparing it to carlisle setting it's council tax rates.

That's how we should be able to compare. Carlisle doesn't run a banking system that is god know what times it's GDP where 25% of deposits are Russian. Don't seem to be many queues at Carlisle cashpoints either. If Carlisle council can get it right why can't Cyprus?

John_Pierpoint

wotsthat wrote: »

That's how we should be able to compare. Carlisle doesn't run a banking system that is god know what times it's GDP where 25% of deposits are Russian. Don't seem to be many queues at Carlisle cashpoints either. If Carlisle council can get it right why can't Cyprus?

So Carlisle was not one of the local authorities that invested and lost the tax payers money in Iceland ?

Presumably most local bursars, will have learned the lesson and avoided Cyprus?

A._Badger wrote: »

And quite rightly so. If all one ever learned about Gordon Brown was his thuggish and immoral invocation of anti-terrorism laws against Iceland, that alone would be enough to consign him to the dustbin of history.

Am I still waiting for our share of the Lehman cash balance, conveniently taxied into New York, from Tokyo via London, on its round the world air ticket, when the music stopped???

More fiscal terrorism?

dryhat wrote: »

This guy must have a few quid in cyprus, perhaps they can start by just taking all of that ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21913356

(A conspiracy theorist's wet dream)

Anyone seen the man on the left sneaking into the Ayia Napa branch to make a surreptitious deposit of what is left of his spare cash? - if he still had any, he seems to not have much hair left to cut.

.

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Apparently panic buying has broken out today, with people trying to buy as many longer lasting goods as they can, incase they cannot get cash or goods next week.

How long until the lights go out? Has the oil bill been paid recently?
Are airlines starting to land with their planes' tanks still half full ?
Mind you if this Siberian weather keeps it up all next week, perhaps things will be flickering out here too.

antrobus

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Luxembourg's banking sector is 24 times its GDP. Also Luxembourg maintains banking secrecy. So you wonder if this is the end of the banking crisis.

Cyprus – External Debt = $106B. External Debt to GDP = 440%
Luxemburg – External Debt = $2.2T. External debt to GDP = 3,700%

http://www.businessinsider.com/europes-money-centers-2013-3

If I was in charge of Luxembourg I'd be worried. If I had a business in Luxembourg (like say Amazon) I'd be working on my disaster recovery plan.

antrobus

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Apparently panic buying has broken out today, with people trying to buy as many longer lasting goods as they can, incase they cannot get cash or goods next week.
..

According to the Telegraph the opposite was the case - "Every shop along a strip on Archbishop Makarios Avenue in central Nicosia reported to have had not a single customer all day".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/cyprus/9948914/Cyprus-Eurogeddon-deserted-streets-of-a-country-closed-for-business.html

Masomnia wrote: »

Wasn't there a court ruling recently that decided Iceland didn't have to compensate British depositors?

EFTA ruling. Iceland is in EFTA. The EU took Iceland to court to discover that the rules of the EEA passport scheme had not been drafted properly.

wotsthat wrote: »

Sort of. I think Iceland have to repay the UK £2.3bn but payments don't start until 2016. The court ruling decided that no interest should be paid on the £2.3bn.

Actually I think we've already received 90% or so of the money from the liquidation of Landsbanki assets. There was never really that much doubt that we'd get the £2.3bn itself back, and the fact that Iceland kicked up a fuss about it, only goes to show how people will panic in a crisis.

CLAPTON

antrobus wrote: »

Cyprus – External Debt = $106B. External Debt to GDP = 440%
Luxemburg – External Debt = $2.2T. External debt to GDP = 3,700%

http://www.businessinsider.com/europes-money-centers-2013-3

If I was in charge of Luxembourg I'd be worried. If I had a business in Luxembourg (like say Amazon) I'd be working on my disaster recovery plan.

high level of debts matched by high level of quality assets that generate high levels of cash flow make for a rich and wealthy life

Cyprus is bankrupt because it has no cash and can't sell its junk 'assets'

lending it money simply delays the inevitable as it has no means to repay the loans

antrobus

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

So Carlisle was not one of the local authorities that invested and lost the tax payers money in Iceland ?

Can't see their name on the list.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7660741.stm

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

....How long until the lights go out? Has the oil bill been paid recently?...

Apparently there are tankers waiting in port that won't offload until they get paid. Supermarkets only have 2-3 days worth of stock in the system, and can't reorder because their suppliers are insisting on cash up front.

I liked the Telegraph leader yesterday;

Cyprus was Britain on steroids

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9948541/Once-again-the-EUs-hubris-brings-nemesis.html

ChiefGrasscutter

A._Badger wrote: »

And quite rightly so. If all one ever learned about Gordon Brown was his thuggish and immoral invocation of anti-terrorism laws against Iceland, that alone would be enough to consign him to the dustbin of history.

The clauses used by Gordon Brown were contained within an Act called the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Bill and not suprisingly covered a range of items. Curiously whenever this subject comes up, only the first part of the Act's full title is mentioned.........
That said, some might indeed say that a Foreign power refusing to return the deposits of some 300,000 UK residents made to a UK based organisation contolled from Iceland is indeed financial terrorism.

Although no fan of G.Brown myself I would venture that history will treat him more kindly in that he managed almost single handly within the cabinet to ensure that the UK did not enter the Euro.

I suspect under Cameron/Osborne the Icesave savers would have got far less - if anything.

ChiefGrasscutter

Anyway, back on topic.
The latest theory doing the rounds as to why the Cyprus bank's bondholders are not being "tapped" for money..........is that the bonds have already been pledged as collateral to the ECB.
Of course this does mean that if the Cyprus banks do collapse then they will take out the ECB with them.

It also seems possible that all those other banks from other nations operating in Cyprus will have all their depositors 'haircutted'.
mmmmmmmmmmm, that will go down well.
Quite how they would force say a Swiss bank to haircut depositors and then issue shares instead to them as re-compense will be interesting to see.
Or maybe the unfortunate foreign banking depositor is to get shares in the Cyprus banks......?

edit: my grammer

dryhat

This is not about individual countries or their puppet politicians.

An organised crime syndicate has hijacked the economies of the world and are now holding its people captive with threats of destruction if we don't pay for the bills they have run up on our behalf.

We are all cypriots now and it is our right and indeed duty to stand up to these financial terrorists and demand our economy back.

If it takes pain and blood to achieve this then so be it.

I'm up for it and am prepared to fight for my children's future.