Russians, Ukrainians elected to Bank of Cyprus board

Six Russian and Ukrainians were elected Tuesday to the board of Bank of Cyprus at a stormy meeting of shareholders hit by a reorganisation connected with the island’s EU bailout.

The new 16-member board was elected from a list of 46 candidates at a gathering of more than 1,500 people, representing 53.6 percent of total share capital.

A formal announcement is expected to confirm that the chairman of the board, whose makeup must still be approved by the central bank, will be Cypriot Kristis Hassapis.

In return for a 10 billion-euro bailout ($13 billion) in March, international creditors demanded the winding up of the island’s second-largest bank, Laiki.

Large savers there had amounts exceeding 100,000 seized and what was left remained was merged with BoC.

At BoC, there was a forced conversion of 48.5 percent of deposits of over 100,000 euros into shares. A majority of those affected were foreign savers, mostly Russian.

The board will have to ensure that the bank, the country’s largest, undergoes a rigid restructuring that will see the number of branches and staff drastically downsized.

The largest shareholders, at 18.1 percent, in the Bank of Cyprus are depositors in wound-up Laiki, while the next biggest stakeholders are Russian and Ukrainian businessmen with 12-15 percent.

BoC’s share capital amounts to 4.7 billion euros, 81.4 percent of which is owned by 21,000 depositors-turned-shareholders due to the bail-in decision demanded by international lenders.