Bond holders to fight back

By George Psyllides

STUNG bank bond holders on Friday pledged to wage a relentless struggle until they are compensated as they criticised the president for not doing anything to help.

Chairman of their association Fivos Mavrovouniotis said for the past two years or so they were being strung along by the president, the ministers of finance and justice, the Central Bank, and Bank of Cyprus.

From now on, Mavrovouniotis said during a news conference, the association will provide assistance and support to members who have sued or are planning to sue and it will continue efforts to settle matters out of court.

One way of doing so was through the financial ombudsman whose mandate, however, only included cases involving up to €170,000. The ombudsman can only award up to €50,000 in compensation.

Mavrovouniotis said they were trying to raise the amount threshold to €500,000, and compensation to €300,000.

“I believe if these moves take place the situation will improve for a large number of bank securities holders,” he said.

Private holders of convertible enhanced capital securities issued by the Bank of Cyprus and now-defunct Laiki Bank claim they were mis-sold the financial products, which were essentially wiped out following the March 2013 events, and demand to be compensated.

Many had also drawn loans using the securities as collateral, which they are now being asked to repay.

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