Bank of Cyprus chairman resigns unexpectedly
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus’s largest bank, Bank of Cyprus, announced yesterday that its chairman Vassilis Rologis had tendered his resignation. Reasons for the resignation were not immediately clear. The bank said its board of directors would discuss Rologis’s resignation at their next meeting scheduled for September 7. Rologis was one of the key players behind a failed attempt by the bank to acquire Emporiki Bank of Greece two months ago. «We didn’t expect [the resignation] and I can’t think what triggered it,» a source in the bank told Reuters. In response to a question whether the resignation was related to the Greek bank, the source said that all board members had, officially at least, backed Bank of Cyprus’s initial decision to go ahead with its attempts to acquire Emporiki. Bank of Cyprus’s bid drew some criticism from Greek circles at the way it was handled. Rologis, formerly head of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, became chairman of the bank in May 2004.
