Cyprus surprise - Cypriot depositors to take a 'haircut'

socrates

Generali wrote: »

Yup, another thank you from me.

Good, informative posts from a poster who is happy to have his views examined a little. Good work Socrates. Almost as good as the original!

I wish I was - not going near that hemlock though

Thrugelmir

It had loaned money to a community of Greek monks involved in land deals and to others who used the money to support a share sale by Marfin Investment Group, a company linked to Laiki through a shared chairman – Vgenopoulos -- until November 2011.

I've read about these monks a while back. Seems as if the jig saw is slowly coming together.

Struggling to think of the source though.

Generali

socrates wrote: »

I wish I was - not going near that hemlock though

You are pretty open to a bit of Socratic Method though. Not many other posters on the interweb are.

I've just had a read of the Socrates page on Wiki. Interesting stuff!

socrates

To be honest when you add the Mari Explosion cost - which was around 5 billion Euros

and

The Greek Sovereign Bonds of around 5 billion Euros that were lost - you are not far off the total

I can go into greater depth on these two major incidents if people wish....

Generali

socrates wrote: »

To be honest when you add the Mari Explosion cost - which was around 5 billion Euros

and

The Greek Sovereign Bonds of around 5 billion Euros that were lost - you are not far off the total

I can go into greater depth on these two major incidents if people wish....

Go ahead please.

socrates

Give me a few minutes to formulate my 'oppositional discussion'

socrates

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/cyprus/8630190/Iran-explosives-at-centre-of-Cypriot-intrigue.html

the interesting part is this bit

The vessel had been tagged as of interest by the United States navy not long after leaving the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas heading to Latakia in Syria. It was stopped by the US navy and searched twice in the Red Sea, with the agreement of the captain, under the terms of a 2007 UN sanctions resolution banning the export of weapons from Iran.

The vessel put into dock in Egypt, where it was searched again but allowed to continue on its way.

But the United States and Israel believed the end user was most likely Hamas in the West Bank, which has strong ties to both Syria and Iran.

Wikileaks cables have shown how the United States put pressure on the Cypriot authorities to use the ship's Cypriot flag to "recall" the vessel to port.

The ship was escorted into Limassol, where the contents were unloaded and taken into custody. The Cypriot government later announced that the 98 barrels contained 3,300 cases of high explosives - one estimate was 2,000 tonnes - to fuel artillery. Subsequent documents revealed by Wikileaks said they also contained shell casings and primers.
The Iranians denied that the weapons were intended for use in Gaza, as was alleged, but gave no other explanation for the cargo.


As a nation we were told to confiscate the cargo - fair play BUT why were the Cypriots not told by the Americans and Israelis what to do with the dangerous explosives and how to store them?


This was the largest single explosion since WW2


In terms of knowledge it would be very limited as the Cypriots are prevented from holding missiles and the like by Turkey and the international influence they have


Cyprus is running around trying to blame certain Cypriot individuals but they never ordered the confiscation of the cargo - that was the Americans and Israelis - who both walked away when they go what they wanted

socrates

Also this link shows that the German Government would not have failed to notice that Germany were 2nd in the list to the of Banks with an exposure of $10.7 billion (dollars approx) around 8.5 billion euros - to Gross Direct Long Exposures to Greek Sovereigns

http://www.businessinsider.com/banks-exposure-to-greek-debt-2011-9?op=1

socrates

The interesting bits

Cyprus’s major banks turned to Greek sovereign debts as a desperate strategy to find cheap but profitable investments, despite the obvious risks from exposure to Greece.

Laiki Bank and Bank of Cyprus, Cyprus’ two major banking institutions, in particular bought ‘toxic‘ Greek bonds in the last few years, often at a discounted value as other European banks sought to divest themselves of the increasingly risky debts of Greece.

In one prominent example, Greek sovereign bonds were purchased at an 18 per cent discount to their nominal value through the brokerage of Bank of Cyprus, from Germany’s Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche was so desperate to sell that it had even offered 5 per cent commission to any agents who succeeded in selling these ‘toxic’ bonds. This catastrophic investment, whose losses were realized once Greek bonds were forcibly devalued by Greece’s latest Troika deal, represented €100 million euros of revenue for Bank of Cyprus’ brokerage company.

Greece’s revised bailout conditions that were agreed by the Troika in December imposed a widely expected ‘haircut’ on holders of Greek bonds, forcing the Cypriot banks to accept major losses.

This was the death-knell for Cyprus’s irresponsible financial titans.

The likely losses on Greek bonds were widely identified in advance both locally and internationally, yet the Cypriot central bank dismissed them. When the haircut was inevitably applied, both banks collapsed.



So in essence Germany knew the bonds were worthless, they knew who was buying them - yes another member of their 'special club' and they never gave a damn


The Cypriot purchases were dealt with COMPLETELY differently from all the other bonds held which were granted haircuts - the Cypriots lost 100% - the only bonds to be treated this way


Which is why when our President visited Greece he asked for 2 billion Euros back from the Greek President which is what they should have got in line with all the other holders of these bonds - he was told 'the cupboard is bare'


I have had many many debates/arguments with German forum posters on this very subject and they are totally unmoved and claim that the German Govt had no knowledge of the buyer or the sale of these bonds


Of course they did not!!


they should have changed the word 'knowledge' to 'care for'




http://www.citizen-audit.net/cyprus-whose-crisis/

vivatifosi

Thrugelmir wrote: »

I've read about these monks a while back. Seems as if the jig saw is slowly coming together.

Struggling to think of the source though.

There was a bit about the monks in the Michael Lewis book, Boomerang. Did you read that?