ECONOMY

Bank of Cyprus Public Company Ltd announced on Thursday, January 5 that it has fully repaid the ELA funding it has been receiving from the Central Bank of Cyprus.

Minister of Finance Harris Georgiades has congratulated the Bank of Cyprus on the full repayment of the emergency liquidity assistance (ELA).

«I congratulate John Hourican (Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Cyprus Group) and the Bank of Cyprus on the full repayment of ELA. This is a significant development which reaffirms the strengthening of the bank and the restoration of confidence in the banking system of our country”, the Minister said on Thursday in a written statement.

ELA peaked at €11.4 billion in April 2013, after the bank absorbed assets of Laiki Bank which went into liquidation, along with €9.4 bl ELA liability.

The full repayment of ELA comes as the bank`s shares trading on the London Stock Exchange begins on January 19.

Since the events of March 2013, the Bank has repaid €11.4 bn of ELA in total, the bulk of which was transferred to the Bank from Laiki Bank, in accordance with the ‘Sale of Certain Operations of Cyprus Popular Bank Public Co Ltd Decree of 2013’. During 2016 and early 2017 the Bank repaid €3.8 bn of ELA.

This is another significant milestone in the Bank’s journey back to strength since 2013, and was achieved through a number of actions including the extensive deleveraging of non-core assets and operations, the equity raise in 2014, the significant increase in customer deposits over the past two years, the repayment and maturity of Cyprus Government bonds and the conversion of assets into ECB eligible collateral.

John Patrick Hourican, Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Cyprus Group, commented: “The full repayment of ELA funding has been a strategic objective of the Bank over the past three years and signifies the normalisation of the Bank’s funding structure. This should further strengthen stakeholders’ confidence that the Bank is becoming a stronger, safer and a more focused institution capable of delivering appropriate shareholder returns over the medium term.”