"Haircut" Victims: Finance Ministry Will Only Distribute €30 Million for 2026 – Government Open for 2027
"Haircut" Victims: Finance Ministry Will Only Distribute €30 Million for 2026 – Government Open for 2027
The Ministry of Finance does not intend to disburse anything beyond the €30 million that constitutes the remainder of the €70 million paid out as a first installment in August 2025 to bail-in affected ("haircut") depositors and bondholders.
According to information obtained by INK, during today's one-hour meeting of the management committee members of the National Solidarity Fund (ETA), Andreas Zachariades, the Director General of the Ministry of Finance, announced to representatives of the associations for bailed-in depositors, bondholders, and old Bank of Cyprus shareholders that for 2026, the state will limit its payout to just €30 million.
This amount was the remainder of the €100 million left over from the first compensation installment given to the bail-in victims in 2025.
The political decision made in 2024 by the current Council of Ministers was to allocate the first installment for 2025 exclusively to members of the two associations, SYKALA and SYKATA (depositors and bondholders).
The total amount disbursed was €100 million, which could not be completely distributed because several applications were missing sufficient information and were subsequently rejected.
As a result of this filtering process, €30 million was left over. This remaining sum will now be paid to those whose applications had initially been rejected but have since been updated, meet the criteria, and are now approved.
It is noted that the government had budgeted an additional €50 million for 2026, which was intended to form part of the second compensation installment.
INK's sources indicate that representatives from the three associations—particularly SYKALA and SYKATA—reacted strongly.
They criticized what they called a government "backtrack" and warned of retaliatory measures.
They stated they would request a meeting with President Christodoulides, citing his commitment to pay a second installment within 2026.
Regarding the likelihood of granting the second installment in 2027, the Director General of the Ministry of Finance left the possibility open.
Notably, the decision to pay a sum of only €30 million to the bail-in victims for 2026 confirms today's investigative report by INK.
