Don’t pay stockmarket loans, Pourgourides says

HOUSE Watchdog Committee Chairman, Christos Pourgourides, yesterday advised investors who borrowed and lost money during the 1999 Stock Exchange fiasco to halt loan repayments, even if they were being taken to court for arrears. Speaking to the CyBC, Pourgourides said “investors should hold back any payments at the moment and I make this suggestion with full knowledge of the consequences”.

The unusual comments followed Wednesday’s accusation by the House Finance and Watchdog committees that brokerages and commercial banks gave out unauthorised investment loans during the stock market bubble of 1999. An investigation by the two committees revealed brokerages had been giving out investment loans without the required authorisation from the Central Bank, while the commercial banks had surpassed their own limits.

Central Bank Governor, Christodoulos Christodoulou, refused to comment on the issue until the House Committee investigation was complete. He said it was clearly a legal matter and would not comment until he saw the final conclusion of the experts’ report.

He told reporters once he reads the report he will inform the relevant committees, adding, “Certainly the body has been found, now we must locate the murderer”.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.