Cypriot President says fights for better aiblout terms

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades says he is trying to convince creditors to soften bailout terms obliging Cypriot bank clients to pay a levy, media reported Sunday.

Anastasiades was quoted by the BBC as saying he shared his nation’s discontent with the terms, which introduce a levy of 6.75 percent on deposits of less than 100,000 euros ($128,950) and 9.9 percent on deposits with greater sums on Cypriot nationals’ bank deposits.

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund imposed the levy in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bank bailout to keep the Cypriot economy from collapsing. Cypriots rushed to banks' cash machines that began running out of cash.
The Cypriot parliament is to vote on the measure Monday.

Cypriot media reported Sunday that the Central Bank of Cyprus had ordered all national banks to suspend operations at both domestic and foreign offices.

“I fully share the unhappiness caused by a difficult and painful decision,” the BBC quoted Anastasiades as saying. “That's why I continue to fight with the Eurogroup to amend their decisions in the coming hours to limit the impact on small depositors.”

Cyprus’s debt crisis puts at risk Russian businesses, which have strong financial ties with Cyprus, Moody's credit rating agency said Wednesday. The report said Russian banks working with Russian companies registered in Cyprus could lose billions of dollars if the island's government defaults on its debt obligations.