Bank of Cyprus hit by provisions

BANK OF Cyprus posted a decline in nine month net profit yesterday after hiking its provisioning costs in debt-ridden Greece and in Cyprus.

The bank, the largest in Cyprus, said its group net profit for the nine months fell 6 per cent to €248 million but it kept its target of between €300 million and €400 million profit for the whole year.

While profits after tax climbed 58 per cent in Greece, profit fell 18 per cent in Cyprus which has just shaken off the first recession in three decades.

The bank is expanding its presence in south-eastern Europe and also Russia where it launched in 2008. It posted a 300 per cent increase in net profit in Russia for the first nine months of the year compared to a loss last year.

Russian oligarch Dmitriy Rybolovlev owns just under 10 per cent of the bank.

Reflecting deteriorating economic conditions, the bank said provisioning went up by 57 per cent in Cyprus, and by 84 per cent in Greece.

Group net interest income rose to €768 million, up 25 per cent on the first nine months of 2009.

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.