Swiss franc impact minor: CySEC

Cyprus-based investment firms lost some €42.5 million after the Swiss National Bank decided recently to scrap the minimum exchange rate with the euro, but the majority remained unaffected, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday.

CySEC had asked companies last Friday to report whether the move has impacted their business in any way, or their clients’ funds.

“It was determined that 158 out of the 182 licensed investment companies had no negative effects on their capital adequacy or their operations,” CySEC chairwoman Demetra Kalogerou told the Cyprus News Agency.

The rest said they had incurred some losses, but either there was no effect on their capital adequacy or, the effect was not significant.

Kalogerou said Cyprus-based companies have also seen a slight increase in their business due to the problems faced by their counterparts in other countries.

“CySEC has always placed particular importance on capital adequacy matters and has exercised close supervision, something it continues to do,” Kalogerou said.

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.