capital controls laundry list (still not final)
They will initially apply for 7 days
1) You cannot cash cheques
2) You cannot pay without cash or transfer money outside Cyprus except if:
- Commercial transactions which are “normal” to the client after providing explanatory documentation. Documentation only required for sums above 500 euro.
- Wage payments outside Cyprus
- Holiday travel expenses of 10k per quarter and for tuition of students above.
- Payments or transfers outside Cyprus using credit or debit card or prepaid card, up to 5k per month per person for each bank
- Payments to insurance companies
3) You can’t terminate a term deposit before expiry, except if its for a loan payment
4) You can’t transfer banknotes/coins in euro or other currency above 3k eur, per person.
5) Financial transaction/payment/transfer is also captured by the restrictions
6) A credit institution cannot perform payments without cash or transfer money in a way that circumvents the restrictions
7) Restrictions apply to all accounts, transfers, payments irrespective of currency
Exceptions to all:
Money inflows to Cyprus
Intrabank financial transactions
CB, Cyprus Republic or European Commission approved transactions
Not only are they restricting long-term deposits (such as point (3)), but there are now also severe restriction of basic cross-border transactions, both physical (4) and electronic (2). This really puts into question whether Euros in Cyprus are real Euros. Obviously, this may be a temporary thing, but you never know. Uncertainty could feed on itself, and restrictions may not be reversable therefore.