FBME Card Services forced to lay off staff

FBME Card Services announced it was making redundant 70 of its 105 employees as a result of the suspension of the company’s operations last week.

The company’s operations were suspended last Thursday because of the disruption to payments caused when the Central Bank took over the administration of FBME Bank after money laundering allegations.

“The company sincerely regrets that this situation has been forced on it because of its inability to operate, which, in turn, is due to the disruption to payments since the Special Resolution measures were imposed on the Cyprus branch of FBME Bank Limited,” the company said in a statement. “FBME Card Services has been faced with an impossible situation. Remaining employees will be retained to run the company in its suspension, hopefully with a view to rebuilding operations.”

The company said all employees being made redundant have been informed and will receive their full entitlements from FBME in the August payroll plus in due course their compensation payment from the government.

The Central Bank (CBC) initiated resolution procedures after a US Treasury report named it a “primary money laundering concern.”

The CBC said it was selling FBME Bank to protect depositors and prevent contagion after correspondent banks froze and or closed the branch’s US dollar accounts and have suspended transfers on behalf of the branch.

The lender denied the allegations and described the CBC’s move as a hostile take over.

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.