Popular cuts down in Greece

CYPRUS Popular Bank’s Greek unit will cut its branch network and staff numbers this year as part of efforts to reduce operating costs to cope with the country’s deep recession, it said yesterday.

Popular, Cyprus’s second-largest bank, was nationalised in mid-2012 after its capital base took a severe hit from a writedown in Greek government debt where it was heavily exposed.

The bank’s Greek unit launched a voluntary retirement scheme in December, aiming to reduce staff numbers by 400 by the end of January, which will help to cut payroll costs by 12 per cent.

Last year its Greek subsidiary cut its network by 42 branches to 132 which helped reduce costs by 15 per cent. The bank is targeting further savings of 20 per cent this year.

The Cypriot state now owns about 84 per cent of Popular. The bank bailout forced Cyprus to seek financial aid from its EU partners and the IMF.

Bank of Cyprus, the island’s biggets lender, said on Tuesday it had cut staff in Greece by 300 people through a voluntary exit programme and expected to reduce its payroll by 12 per cent this year.

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.