Cyprus eases restrictions on new bank accounts
Cyprus’s Finance Ministry is allowing new accounts to be opened at the country’s banks for the first time since the country was bailed out in March.
However, there are a number of conditions for the new accounts.
The ministry said in a statement on Friday that fixed-term accounts must be opened with at least 5,000 euros cash and can’t be closed for three months.
Also, the new current accounts can only be used to pay off loans at any Cypriot bank.
Authorities have been gradually lifting restrictions that were imposed in March to prevent a bank run after Cyprus agreed on a 23-billion-euro rescue package.
A condition of the deal was for depositors in Cyprus’s two biggest banks to take steep losses on savings over 100,000 euros. [AP]
