Bank of Cyprus fully repays ELA

January 8, 2017

The Bank of Cyprus announced today that it fully repaid its emergency liquidity assistance (ELA), to the Central Bank of Cyprus. ELA inherited €11.4 billion in April 2013, after Laiki Bank went into liquidation.

The full repayment of ELA comes as the bank`s shares trading in the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is expected to begin on January 19.

“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,” the bank said in a press release.

John Patrick Hourican, Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Cyprus Group, said “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,” he concluded.
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