Shock in Cyprus as savers face bailout levy

The really frightening aspect to this mess is the grab on deposits of less than 100,000 euros.

The ECB has a similar policy to the FDIC in the US, and CDIC in Canada.

The basic idea is that the deposits of bank customers are supposed to be insured
and protected, to a level of 100k euros, dollars, etc.
If the bank fails, your money is safe.

Since this deal affects every bank account in Cyprus (even the 3000 UK soldiers
still serving as peacekeepers who may have accounts),
people saving to buy houses,
bank accounts set up for children,
everything,

The EU / IMF / Cypriot government has just decided, by calling it a 'tax',
which it isn't, it's seizing money for the banks,
that those protections just don't apply, and they can raid your savings at will.


And if they can do that in Cyprus, ...........................

Don't worry about Spain, Portugal, or even Ireland.

Whatever money that was being saved there has been wiped out by unemployment,
tax hikes, and inflation.


Watch what the Italians do on Monday.

It pissed me off SO bad.
The UK soldiers will be compensated for the "loss" (money grab) by the UK government.

Why does that bother you ?

Suddenly keeping your money in a bank account no longer seems like a good idea.

wonder if you had gold in a vault, if they'd be allowed to open it and take some?

wonder if you had gold in a vault, if they'd be allowed to open it and take some?

Governments have seized (stolen) privately held gold before. Gold Reserve Act, 1934.

I've been saying this for years, let this be a lesson... if ever there is talk again in Canada of relaxing bank regulations, fight it tooth and nail. The best thing that happened in our banking industry (sorry, to it's clients) was when Government introduced the regulations.

Did they not have regulations in Cyprus?

EU regulations..


They took a lot of deposits, including from Russia, and bought Greek bonds with them.
You'll recall those bonds went tits up a couple of years ago, and now the
Greeks have a 320 billion euro bailout, for 10 million people.


All this BS for a paltry 10 billion, and the EU playing games.

This will not end well.

Every country has bank regulations but... I know that ours are pretty restrictive compared to other countries but I'm having problems finding a link.

From what I read they get around existing regulations in Cyprus by calling this a tax. Sounds familiar. Oh right, the American Supreme Court decision on the Obamacare mandate.

Somebody mentioned how Roosevelt re-regulated the holding of gold in America. There was a regulation, then there was another regulation cancelling the "yes, you can hold gold" regulation.

They say this could get interesting when the European banks open on Tuesday. A couple of runs on banks in Southern Europe, and who knows...Domino effect maybe?

What the government is doing in Cyprus has nothing to do with regulations... except if you link the tax to the fact that the banks are having problems because they operate in a country where bank regulations are lacking.

That sentence might be hard to understand.

It could happen here, it's not impossible, what's stopping our government from slapping a tax on our savings?

Yes, it's a tax imposed by the government, and the money will be given up
in exchange for the EU giving the 10 billion to the banks.

Since the banks don't fail, there is no need to help people with their deposits,
that everyone ( including all of us ) thought were protected.

Nice end run around.