Cyprus Mail 1 April 2020 - by George Psyllides
The Bank of Cyprus announced a series of measures on Wednesday aiming to help people and organisations deal with the effects of the coronavirus crisis.
Among the 11 measures is a pledge to provide the necessary liquidity through new facilities to viable customers in a bid to secure their viability when the country comes out of the crisis.
“The first objective is to safeguard employment,” the lender said in a statement.
As regards the nine-month instalment suspension, the bank said it would not ask customers to pay the interest immediately at the end of the year.
The loan will be extended accordingly, and the customer will be offered a choice on how to repay the instalments.
The bank urged customers to use the current time period to contact their banker to discuss restructuring options based on the recent directives of the central bank.
Bank of Cyprus said it would be also issuing debit cards free of charge to all customers with accounts who did not have one.
“In general, debit cards will be issued for free until the end of May,” the bank said.
Crisis-related allowances transferred to customer accounts will not be withheld by the bank against other obligations, the statement added.
Those who want to open a new account should contact the bank and make arrangements for an IBAN to be issued to enable the transfers.
All digipass security tokens will continue to be provided for free.
Withdrawal charges – administration, loading, or exchange fees – in countries outside the eurozone, will be waived for students until the end of May.
Online transfers up to €500 to third parties – mainly helps parents sending money to children studying abroad — will be free from April 6. Direct debit and standing orders will also be free until the end of May.
