A tax on depositors—6.75% on deposits up to €100,000, and 9.9% above that level—was the only way out for the bloc's finance ministers after Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, and the International Monetary Fund insisted that financial aid to Cyprus should be limited to €10 billion.
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But Ms. Lagarde had something else in mind. The IMF chief presented a much more radical plan, in which deposits above €100,000 in Laiki and Bank of Cyprus would have been cut by between 30% and 40%. The owners of senior bonds in the two banks would also have faced losses—a step that was ultimately rejected. That plan would have limited the international bailout to €10 billion and raise some €7.5 billion from depositors.
It quickly garnered the support of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, as well as the delegates of Finland, the Netherlands and Slovakia—all countries with strong, bailout-wary parliaments.
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At that moment, Cypriot officials took an unprecedented step: They decided to freeze all electronic transactions from the island's banks to prevent a last-minute pullout in case the deal was leaked. But when Mr. Sarris returned to the fifth floor to presented that proposal, he found few takers. After another round of discussions, in which Mr. Schäuble demanded a tax of as much as 18%, Mr. Sarris was ready to accept a levy of 12.5% on deposits above €100,000 and 7.5% for smaller deposits.
He went back up to brief the president and Mr. Anastasiades rejected the deal, threatening to leave. At that point, around 1 a.m. a small group—including Ms. Lagarde, Mr. Rehn, Mr. Sarris, Mr. Schäuble, France's Pierre Moscovici, Mr. Asmussen and Mr. Dijsselbloem broke off into a separate room. It was then—as other ministers snoozed or played on their iPads— that Mr. Asmussen told Mr. Anastasiades that without a deal, Cyprus's two big banks faced insolvency, since they would have no prospect of European funds to repair their battered capital buffers, said people who were present. In that case, the ECB would no longer be willing to fund the banks with central-bank emergency liquidity, Mr. Asmussen said, these people said. The implication: The island's biggest banks might be unable to reopen after Monday's bank holiday.
Mr. Asmussen backed up the warning by calling ECB President Mario Draghi and letting him know the central bank might have to deal with the collapse of Cyprus's banks.
The ultimatum carried echoes of the ECB's threat to cut off emergency liquidity for Irish banks in late 2010, which forced a reluctant Irish government to accept a euro-zone bailout.
Mr. Anastasiades gave in, but insisted that no deposit be taxed at more than 10%. In a final round of talks, Mr. Sarris hashed out a compromise with the ECB's Mr. Asmussen, the IMF's Ms. Lagarde, Eurogroup head Mr. Dijsselbloem and the Commission's Mr. Rehn.The levies were settled upon, but levels were under discussion Sunday night in Nicosia, with the likelihood the rate for smaller depositors would be cut and those for larger ones raised.
Re: Amato presidente della repubblica, il comunismo in europa, e miseria a profusione
Sì infatti. Concordo pienamente: l'UE dimostra che vuole poter disporre liberamente della proprietà privata di ogni singolo cittadino dei suoi paesi membri, d'imperio.
Se non è comunismo questo.
Ma se ne sta parlando nel topic della crisi. Ti copio il messaggio lì, se non ti dispiace.
Amato presidente della repubblica, il comunismo in europa, e miseria a profusione per
