EC should have treated Cyprus in same manner they treat other countries which are part of Euro Zone. If they can bail out Greece without a haircut which actually caused crisis in Cyprus, why do this against Cyprus?
Also it might be a tax haven for others , but for Cypriots its their country. And this haircut is applied to everybody who has deposits in the Cypriot branches of Laikie bank but Same bank has branches in Greece and people with deposits in Greek branches won't suffer.
Cypriots had continously higher interest rates on their deposits than other Europeans. The small levy wouldn't even have eaten up these profits which are essentially due to tax havenry and unsound business practices on a country wide scale. No pity there...
Even if the 7% levy was all hard-earned money instead of too high interest rate profits, this would have hardly bankrupted more than a few depositors which were in dire straits already.
7% levy was proposed on all accounts, and it was illegal to put levy on insured deposits, and it was asked to put this levy on all banks even if they are solvent.
Can you quote what high interest rates are you talking about on deposits? And what about interest rates on Current Accounts? Business usually pay money to have these accounts.
Cyprus also has higher interest rates on mortgages, and most Cypriots have mortgages, so they are not actually having any profits because of "so-called" high rates.
If European Union is so concerned about Tax-Haven issues, why didn't they come clean and ask Cyprus to raise tax rates as they did in 2004 when Cyprus joined European Union, And what about Luxembourg, isn't it where Apple is registered for saving taxes ??
