NICOSIA, July 16 (Xinhua): The European Central Bank (ECB) has agreed on measures to help the troubled Cypriot banking system to throw off shackles which prevent it to operate normally, according to a government statement issued here on Wednesday.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades travelled to Frankfurt to meet ECB President Mario Draghi ahead of a meeting of European Union (EU) leaders in Brussels, to set out problems Cypriot banks are faced with.
The statement said they agreed on unspecified measures by the ECB to help the Cypriot banks. "They discussed ways to provide further support, with the ECB assuming a decisive role ... and agreed to continue their dialogue on implementing everything that was agreed in the meeting," said the government statement.
No details of what has been agreed upon were made available. Anastasiades refused to talk about his requests to Draghi ahead of their meeting, saying public statements would not be helpful.
But informed sources said that his main request to Draghi was to partly convert into a medium-term bond part of a heavy bank debt incurred out of receiving emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) from the ECB prior to last year's shake up of the Cypriot banking system.
ECB agrees to help Cypriot banking system
FE Team | Published: July 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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