Cyprus, lenders set Bank of Cyprus bail-in at 47.5 pct, sources say

Reuters
July 28, 2013

Cyprus and its international lenders have agreed to convert 47.5 percent of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros in Bank of Cyprus to equity to recapitalize it, banking sources said on Sunday.

Under a programme agreed between Cyprus and lenders in March, large depositors in Bank of Cyprus were earmarked to pay for the recapitalisation of the bank. Authorities initially converted 37.5 percent of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros into equity, and held an additional 22.5 percent as a buffer in the event of further needs.

“There was an agreement concluding at a final figure of 47.5 percent this morning,” a source close to consultations told Reuters.

British widow: ‘I face ruin from Cyprus crisis’

Sharon Connor stands to lose upwards of €50,000 after her profits from a house sale remain frozen in a bank on the island

Helena Smith

The Observer, Saturday 13 April 2013

Sharon Connor, the money from the sale of her house in Cyprus is frozen in the Cyprus bank crisis. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Tragedy first struck Sharon Connor when her husband, Gary, was killed by a heart attack in January last year. He had just turned 54. From running a successful scuba-diving business on Cyprus, the mother-of-two found herself catapulted into a world of grief, unable to even visit the ornate, two-storey villa the couple had bought on the island.

“It took me five months before I could set foot in the place,” said Connor, who was on her own when she found her husband dead in bed. “I still have flashbacks and see it in my head all the time.”

In March the widow decided to put the property on the market. In the space of three days she had found a buyer, located a new home in the UK and a job outside London. “I was trying to move forward with my life,” the 55-year-old told the Observer from Kent, “until I found myself caught up in the nightmare scenario that has befallen Cyprus”.

This weekend the Briton faces the prospect of financial ruin following the shattering news that the proceeds from her house sale – €181,000 (£155,000) – will remain frozen in the Bank of Cyprus as a result of capital controls enforced to contain the crisis.

As the size of Cyprus’s bailout requirements swelled from €17bn to €23bn, she learned that the money, deposited in a special account for the purposes of the transaction, could not be transferred to the UK. Now she lives in fear that, like other depositors with more than €100,000 in Cyprus, she will also fall victim to the raid on savings that the Cypriot government has been ordered to implement as the price of international aid.

“It is totally unfair. My funds should not be frozen, as they are not savings that have been accruing interest,” said Connor, whose misfortune was that the money hit her account two hours before the close of business on 15 March.

“It was money from a real estate sale that was supposed to be in the bank for a single day. The same day it went in, I sent an email instructing the bank to transfer the funds – some of which were in euros and some in sterling – to the UK, but on Saturday morning the news broke that Cypriot banks were in major financial difficulty.”

Ever since then Connor, who was due last week to buy a three-bedroom semi in Kent, has been battling to get her money released. She has written to “everyone who is anyone”, including David Cameron and Angela Merkel, and started a Facebook campaign called “Gary and Sharon v Merkel”.

“Every day is a struggle,” said the widow, who is from Welling in south-east London. “I was set on moving on after Gary passed last year and had everything in motion when, overnight, my world was turned upside down again … it is a scenario that had made me physically ill.”

Connor has calculated that she could lose €50,000 (£42,000) as a result of the emergency levy that Nicosia must now enact to qualify for financial assistance from the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Revelations that the beleaguered Cypriot government will have to find almost double the amount to meet the terms of the €10bn bailout – amid signs that the EU’s wealthy north has tired of rescuing the bloc’s heavily indebted south – have only sharpened her anguish. “Now I live in worry that with the latest news that Cyprus’s bailout requirements are going to be much bigger than thought, depositors will suffer even more,” she said.

Connor had hoped to be exempted from the levy – along with other special cases – but her appeal for dispensation was turned down by the island’s central bank last week. On Friday she was told by the Bank of Cyprus that it was seeking clarification. “I asked my representative at the Bank of Cyprus to put forward my appeal to the central bank, and in turn they asked for the contract of sale and solicitors’ details,” she recalled. “Last week the central bank committee declined the request. I was also told that I cannot transfer any funds from my accounts to the UK.”

In a cruel twist of fate, the sale was due to have been completed a week earlier. “A document was missing from the necessary paperwork that prevented the deal from being closed,” she said. “Had the transaction gone through as originally planned, the funds would now be in my British bank account.”

Connor, who also has five grandchildren, has now been forced to cash in her two private pension schemes to make ends meet. “I have my furniture in storage with no way of knowing when, or if, I can purchase my own property,” she said. “The local council will not put me on their housing register as I have funds from the sale of a house in the bank, albeit I cannot access them.”

Had it not been for the help of friends and family, she says, she might not have got through the ordeal. “If it was not for the goodness of my sister, Theresa, and other family members, I would be homeless,” she said. “I live in hope that common sense will prevail and I will receive what is rightfully mine. This is money that my husband and I have accumulated and worked for our whole lives.”

Big depositors in Cyprus to lose far more than feared

By Michele Kambas

NICOSIA | Fri Mar 29, 2013 4:16pm EDT

(Reuters) – Big depositors in Cyprus’s largest bank stand to lose far more than initially feared under a European Union rescue package to save the island from bankruptcy, a source with direct knowledge of the terms said on Friday.

Under conditions expected to be announced on Saturday, depositors in Bank of Cyprus will get shares in the bank worth 37.5 percent of their deposits over 100,000 euros, the source told Reuters, while the rest of their deposits may never be paid back.

The toughening of the terms will send a clear signal that the bailout means the end of Cyprus as a hub for offshore finance and could accelerate economic decline on the island and bring steeper job losses.

Officials had previously spoken of a loss to big depositors of 30 to 40 percent.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday defended the 10-billion euro ($13 billion) bailout deal agreed with the EU five days ago, saying it had contained the risk of national bankruptcy.

“We have no intention of leaving the euro,” the conservative leader told a conference of civil servants in the capital, Nicosia.

“In no way will we experiment with the future of our country,” he said.

Cypriots, however, are angry at the price attached to the rescue – the winding down of the island’s second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, and an unprecedented raid on deposits over 100,000 euros.

Under the terms of the deal, the assets of Laiki bank will be transferred to Bank of Cyprus.

At Bank of Cyprus, about 22.5 percent of deposits over 100,000 euros will attract no interest, the source said. The remaining 40 percent will continue to attract interest, but will not be repaid unless the bank does well.

Those with deposits under 100,000 euros will continue to be protected under the state’s deposit guarantee.

Cyprus’s difficulties have sent jitters around the fragile single European currency zone, and led to the imposition of capital controls in Cyprus to prevent a run on banks by worried Cypriots and wealthy foreign depositors.

“CYPRUS EURO”

Banks reopened on Thursday after an almost two-week shutdown as Cyprus negotiated the rescue package. In the end, the reopening was largely quiet, with Cypriots queuing calmly for the 300 euros they were permitted to withdraw daily.

The imposition of capital controls has led economists to warn that a second-class “Cyprus euro” could emerge, with funds trapped on the island less valuable than euros that can be freely spent abroad.

Anastasiades said the restrictions on transactions – unprecedented in the currency bloc since euro coins and banknotes entered circulation in 2002 – would be gradually lifted. He gave no time frame but the central bank said the measures would be reviewed daily.

He hit out at banking authorities in Cyprus and Europe for pouring money into the crippled Laiki.

“How serious were those authorities that permitted the financing of a bankrupt bank to the highest possible amount?” Anastasiades said.

The president, barely a month in the job and wrestling with Cyprus’s worst crisis since a 1974 war split the island in two, accused the 17-nation euro currency bloc of making “unprecedented demands that forced Cyprus to become an experiment”.

European leaders have insisted the raid on big bank deposits in Cyprus is a one-off in their handling of a debt crisis that refuses to be contained.

MODEL

But policymakers are divided, and the waters were muddied a day after the deal was inked when the Dutch chair of the euro zone’s finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said it could serve as a model for future crises.

Faced with a market backlash, Dijsselbloem rowed back. But on Friday, European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaas Knot, a fellow Dutchman, said there was “little wrong” with his assessment.

“The content of his remarks comes down to an approach which has been on the table for a longer time in Europe,” Knot was quoted as saying by Dutch daily Het Financieele Dagblad. “This approach will be part of the European liquidation policy.”

The Cyprus rescue differs from those in other euro zone countries because bank depositors have had to take losses, although an initial plan to hit small deposits as well as big ones was abandoned and accounts under 100,000 euros were spared.

Warnings of a stampede at Cypriot banks when they reopened on Thursday proved unfounded.

For almost two weeks, Cypriots were on a ration of limited withdrawals from bank cash machines. Even with banks now open, they face a regime of strict restrictions designed to halt a flight of capital from the island.

Some economists say those restrictions will be difficult to lift. Anastasiades said the capital controls would be “gradually eased until we can return to normal”.

The government initially said the controls would stay in place for seven days, but Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said on Thursday they could last “about a month”.

On Friday, easing a ban on cheque payments, Cypriot authorities said cheques could be used to make payments to government agencies up to a limit of 5,000 euros. Anything more than 5,000 euros would require Central Bank approval.

The bank also issued a directive limiting the cash that can be taken to areas of the island beyond the “control of the Cypriot authorities” – a reference to Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus which considers itself an independent state. Cyprus residents can take 300 euros; non-residents can take 500.

Under the terms of the capital controls, Cypriots and foreigners are allowed to take up to 1,000 euros in cash when they leave the island.

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Words Of Warning: Get Your Money Out Of European Banks

Central bank of cyprus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse
March 25, 2013

 

If you still have money in European banks, you need to get it out.  This is particularly true if you have money in southern European banks.  As I write this, the final details of the Cyprus bailout are being worked out, but one thing has become abundantly clear: at least some depositors are going to lose a substantial amount of money.  Personally, I never dreamed that they would go after private bank accounts in Europe, but now that this precedent has been set it should be apparent to everyone that no bank account will ever be considered 100% safe ever again.  Without trust, a banking system simply cannot function, and right now there are prominent voices on both sides of the Atlantic that are loudly warning that trust in the European banking system has been shattered and that people need to get their money out of those banks as rapidly as they can.  Even if you don’t end up losing a significant chunk of your money, you could still end up dealing with very serious capital controls that greatly restrict what you are able to do with your money.  Just look at what is already happening in Cyprus.  Cash withdrawals through ATMs have now been limited to 100 euros per day, and when the banks finally do reopen there will be strict limits on financial transactions in order to prevent a full-blown bank run.  And of course anyone with half a brain will be trying to get as much of their money as they can out of those banks once they do reopen.  So the truth is that the problems for Cyprus banks are just beginning.  The size of the “bailout” that will be needed to keep those banks afloat will just keep getting larger and larger the more money that is withdrawn.  Cyprus is heading for a complete and total banking meltdown, and because the economy of the island is so dependent on banking that means that the economy of the entire nation is going to collapse.  Sadly, similar scenarios will soon start playing out all over Europe.

 

So if you hear that a “deal” has been reached to “bail out” Cyprus, please keep in mind that the economy of Cyprus is going to collapse no matter what happens.  It is just a matter of apportioning the pain at this point.

 

According to the New York Times, it looks like much of the pain is going to be placed on the backs of those with deposits of over 100,000 euros…

 

The revised terms under discussion would assess a one-time tax  of 20 percent on deposits above 100,000 euros at the Bank of Cyprus, which has the largest number of savings accounts on the island. Because the Bank of Cyprus suffered huge losses on bets that it took on Greek bonds, the government appears to be taking  depositors’ money to help plug the hole.

A separate tax of 4 percent would be assessed on uninsured deposits at all other banks, including the 26 foreign banks that operate in Cyprus.

 

Does that sound bad to you?

 

Well, if a deal is not reached, there is a possibility that those with uninsured deposits could lose everything.  According to Ekathimerini, EU officials are telling Cyprus to choose between a “bad scenario” and a “very bad scenario”…

 

The main question surrounds the future of the island’s largest lender, Bank of Cyprus. If unsecured deposits (above 100,000 euros) at all Cypriot banks are taxed then large savings at Bank of Cyprus are likely to be taxed between 20 and 25 percent. If the levy is not imposed on deposits at other lenders, the haircut for Bank of Cyprus customers will be much larger.

The option of a full bail in of Bank of Cyprus depositors is still on the table. As with the Popular Bank of Cyprus (Laiki), which is to go through a resolution process, the full bail in option could lead to deposits above 100,000 euros being lost. The only compensation for unsecured depositors will be shares in the “good” bank that will be created by a possible merger between the “healthy” Laiki and Bank of Cyprus entities.

When asked by Kathimerini how the Cypriot economy will survive if all company and personal deposits above 100,000 euros disappear from the country’s two biggest lenders, the EU official said: “Unfortunately, Cyprus’s choices are between a bad scenario and a very bad scenario.”

 

So what percentage of the deposits in Cyprus are uninsured deposits?

 

Well, nobody knows for sure, but according to JPMorgan close to halfof the total amount of money on deposit in EU banks as a whole is uninsured.

 

Do you think that some of those people will start moving their money to safer locations after watching how things are going down in Cyprus?

 

They would be crazy if they didn’t.

 

And if you think that “deposit insurance” will keep you safe, you are just being delusional.

 

According to CNBC, very strict capital controls are coming to Cyprus.  These rules will apply even to accounts that contain less than 100,000 euros…

 

Financial controls are coming. Depositors with less than 100,000 euros may not lose their money outright, but they won’t like the restrictions–no matter how much they have in the bank. Limits on withdrawals, limits on check cashing, and perhaps even outright conversion of checking accounts into fixed term deposits are coming (translation: you don’t have a checking account, you have a bond from the bank).

 

A lot of people are going to lose a lot of money in Cyprus banks, and a significant percentage of them are going to be Russian.

 

And as I wrote about the other day, you don’t want to have the Russians mad at you.

 

According to the Guardian, Moscow is already considering various ways that it might “punish” the EU…

 

However, with Russian investors having an estimated €30bn (£26bn) deposited in banks on the island, the growing optimism about a deal was accompanied by fears of retaliation from Moscow. Alexander Nekrassov, a former Kremlin adviser, said: “If it is the case that there will be a 25% levy on deposits greater than €100,000 then some Russians will suffer very badly.

“Then, of course, Moscow will be looking for ways to punish the EU. There are a number of large German companies operating in Russia. You could possibly look at freezing assets or taxing assets. The Kremlin is adopting a wait and see policy.”

 

Could this be the start of a bit of “economic warfare” between east and west?

 

One thing is for sure – the Russians simply do not allow people to walk all over them.

 

Meanwhile, things in Cyprus are getting more desperate with each passing day.  Because they cannot get money out of the banks, many retail stores find themselves running low on cash.  In a few more days many of them may not be able to function at all…

 

Retailers, facing cash-on-delivery demands from suppliers, warned stocks were running low. “At the moment, supplies will last another two or three days,” said Adamos Hadijadamou, head of Cyprus’s Association of Supermarkets. “We’ll have a problem if this is not resolved by next week.”

 

But do you know who was able to get their money out in time?

 

The insiders.

 

According to the Daily Mail, the President of Cyprus actually warned “close friends” about what was going to happen and told them to get their money out Cyprus…

 

Cypriot president Nikos Anastasiades ‘warned’ close friends of the financial crisis about to engulf his country so they could move their money abroad, it was claimed on Friday.

 

Overall, approximately 4.5 billion euros was moved out of Cyprus during the week just before the crisis struck.

 

Wouldn’t you like to get advance warning like that?

 

Well, at this point it does not take a genius to figure out what to do about any money that you may have in European banks.  The following is from a recent Forbes article by economist Laurence Kotlikoff…

 

Whatever happens, no one is going to trust or use Cypriot banks.  This will shut down the country’s financial highway and flip Cyprus’ economy to a truly awful equilibrium in a replay of our own country’s Great Depression, which was kicked off by the failure of one-in-three U.S. banks.

Cyprus is a small country.  Still, the failure of its banks could trigger massive bank runs in Greece.  After all, if the European Central Bank is abandoning Cypriot depositors, they may abandon Greek depositors next.  A run on Greek banks could then spread to Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Italy and from there to Belgium and France and, you get the picture, to other countries around the globe, including, drum roll, the U.S.   Every bank in each of these countries has made promises they can’t keep were push come to shove, i.e., if all depositors demand their money back immediately.

We’ve seen this movie before.  And not just in real life.  Every Christmas our tellys show It’s a Wonderful Life in which banker Jimmy Stewart barely saves his small town from economic ruin arising from a banking panic.

 

Others are being even more blunt with their warnings.  For example, Nigel Farage, a member of the European Parliament, is warning everyone to get their money out of southern European banks while they still can…

 

The appalling events in Cyprus over the course of the past week have surpassed even my direst of predictions.

Even I didn’t think that they would stoop to stealing money from people’s bank accounts. I find that astonishing.

There are 750,000 British people who own properties, or who live, many of them in retirement down in Spain.

Our message to expats now that the EU has crossed this line, must be: Get your money out of there while you’ve still got a chance.

 

And Martin Sibileau is proclaiming that if you still have an unsecured deposit in a eurozone bank that you should have your head examined…

 

What are depositors of Euros faced with today? Anything but a clean bet! They don’t know what the expected loss on their capital will be, because it will be decided over a weekend by politicians who don’t even represent them.  They don’t really know where their deposits went to and they also ignore what jurisdiction they really belong to. Finally, depositors are paid mere basis points for their trust in the system vs. the 20% p.a. Argentina offered in 2001 (thanks to the zero-interest rate policies of the 21^stcentury). In light of all this, I can only conclude that anyone still having an unsecured deposit in a Euro zone bank should get his/her head examined!

 

So where should you put your money?

 

I don’t know that there is anywhere that is 100% safe at this point.  But many are pointing to hard assets such as gold and silver.  The following is what trends forecaster Gerald Celente had to say during one recent interview…

 

“People always say to me, ‘Mr. Celente you are always talking about gold.  What are you going to do with gold when everything collapses and there is no money?’  Well, let’s say you are a Cypriot and all of the ATM machines are out of money and the banks are closed?  Do you think those pieces of silver are going to buy you what you need?  Do you think that ounce of gold is going to get you what you want?

That’s the real money.  There is no other money.  When it all comes down, gold and silver are the only things you have to buy what you need, get what you want, or even get out if you need to.”

 

I used to tell people that putting their money in U.S. banks was safer than putting it other places because U.S. bank deposits are covered by deposit insurance up to a certain amount.

 

But now we see that deposit insurance means absolutely nothing.  If they decide to “tax” (i.e. steal) your money from your bank accounts they will just go ahead and do it.

 

So what should we all do?

 

Personally, I think that not having all of your eggs in one basket is a wise approach.  If you have your wealth a bunch of different places and in several different forms, I think that will help.

 

But as the global financial system falls apart, there will be no such thing as 100% safety.  So if you are looking for that you can stop trying.

 

Our world is becoming a very unstable place, and things are going to get a lot worse.  We are all going to have to adjust to this new paradigm and do the best that we can.

 

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Cyprus Bank Bombed – Anger Brewing

Sunday, March 24, 2013 (Before It’s News)

A bomb blast has blown out the window of a Bank of Cyprus bank branch. The blast happened not long ago in this country embroiled in what many have called the ‘legalized plunder’ of a population. With understandable anger being vented towards these criminals masquerading as bankers, is THIS why the DHS is stocking up on bullets and gearing up for civil unrest in America soon? Lets ALL hope that the corrupt bankers and politicians aren’t crazy enough to try robbing Americans blind any more than they are doing already by pulling a ‘Cyprus event’ here.

From lemesos-blog.com, an explosive device placed at Bank of Cyprus, Kato Polemidia, Limassol.

The blast destroyed the window of a branch of the Bank and created a small fire which ‘katasvistike’ (unknown) from the Fire. The area has been blocked by the Cypriot police.

According to reports from a closed circuit monitoring system of the bank, two explosions were recorded. After the first blast, two people with ‘siderolosto’ (unknown) to crush the main entrance, entered into the shop, and then placed in baskets makeshift crack which was taped with flammable material.

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Cyprus secures bailout, avoids bankruptcy

Protesters hold a banner during an anti- bailout rally outside of European Union house in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Sunday, March 24, 2013. After failing for a week to find a solution to a crisis that could force their country into bankruptcy, Cypriot politicians turned to the European Union on Sunday in a last-ditch effort to help the island nation forge a viable plan to secure an international bailout. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

SOURCE

BRUSSELS (AP) — Cyprus secured a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) package of rescue loans in tense, last-ditch negotiations early Monday, saving the country from a banking system collapse and bankruptcy.

“We’ve put an end to the uncertainty that has affected Cyprus and the euro area over the past week,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the meetings of the 17-nation eurozone’s finance ministers.

In return for the bailout, Cyprus must drastically shrink its outsized banking sector, cut its budget, implement structural reforms and privatize state assets, he said.

The cash-strapped Mediterranean island nation has been shut out of international markets for almost two years. It needs the bailout to recapitalize its ailing lenders and keep the government afloat. The European Central Bank had threatened to cut crucial emergency assistance to the country’s banks by Tuesday without an agreement.

Without a deal by Monday night, the tiny Mediterranean island nation of about 1 million would have faced the prospect of bankruptcy, which could have forced it to become the first country to abandon the euro currency. That precedent would have roiled markets and spurred turmoil across the entire eurozone of 300 million people, analysts said, even though Cyprus only makes up less than 0.2 percent of the eurozone’s 10 trillion euro economy.

The finance ministers accepted the plan reached in 10 hours of negotiations in Brussels between Cypriot officials and the so-called troika of creditors: the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank.

“We believe that this will form a lasting, durable and fully financed solution,” said IMF chief Christine Lagarde.

Under the plan, Cyprus’ second-largest bank, Laiki, will be restructured and holders of bank deposits of more than 100,000 euros will have to take losses, Dijsselbloem said, adding that it was not yet clear how severe the losses would be.

“This will have to be worked out in the coming weeks,” he added, noting that it is expected to yield 4.2 billion euros overall. Analysts have estimated investors might lose up to 40 percent of their money.

Savers’ deposits with all Cypriot banks of up to 100,000 euros will be guaranteed by the state in accordance with the EU’s deposit insurance guarantee, Dijsselbloem said. Laiki will be dissolved immediately into a bad bank containing its uninsured deposits and toxic assets, with the guaranteed deposits being transferred to the nation’s biggest lender, Bank of Cyprus.

Large deposits with Bank of Cyprus above the insured level will be frozen until it becomes clear whether or to what extent they will also be forced to take losses, the Eurogroup of finance ministers said in a statement.

Dijsselbloem defended the creditors’ approach to make deposit holders take heavy losses, saying the measures “will be concentrated where the problems are, in the large banks.”

The international creditors, led by the IMF, were seeking a fundamental restructuring of the outsized financial system, which is worth up to eight times the country’s gross domestic product of about 18 billion euros. They said the country’s business model of attracting foreign investors, among them many Russians, with low taxes and lax financial regulation has backfired and must be upended.

For Cyprus, the drastic shrinking of its financial sector, the loss of confidence with the recent turmoil and the upcoming austerity measures means that the country is facing tough times.

“The near future will be very difficult for the country and its people,” acknowledged the EU Commission’s top economic official Olli Rehn. “But (the measures) will be necessary for the Cypriot people to rebuild their economy on a new basis.”

To secure a rescue loan package, Nicosia had to find ways to raise several billion euros so it could qualify for the 10 billion euro bailout package. The bulk of that money is now being raised by forcing losses on large deposit holders, with the remainder coming from tax increases and privatizations. The creditors had insisted that Cyprus couldn’t receive more loans because that would make its debt burden unsustainably high.

A plan agreed to in marathon negotiations earlier this month called for a one-time levy on all bank depositors in Cypriot banks. But the proposal ignited fierce anger among Cypriots because it also targeted small savers. It failed to win a single vote in the Cypriot Parliament.

In an illustration of the depth of the fear of a banking collapse, Cyprus’ central bank on Sunday imposed a daily withdrawal limit of 100 euros ($130) from ATMs of the country’s two largest banks to prevent a bank run by depositors worried about their savings.

Cypriot banks have been closed this past week while officials worked on a rescue plan, and they are not due to reopen until Tuesday. Cash has been available through ATMs, but long lines formed and many machines have quickly run out of cash.

The Cypriot government also voted a set of laws over the past week to introduce capital controls, to avoid a huge depositor flight once its banks will reopen.

After the eurozone’s finance ministers’ approval, several national parliaments in eurozone countries such as Germany then must also approve the bailout deal, which might take another few weeks. EU officials said they expect the whole program to be approved by mid-April.

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