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Bank of Cyprus — Cynergy Bank

Bank of Cyprus was a large lender to the Greek Cypriot community in England from the year 2005 onward. During the financial crisis of 2007-2009, it unilaterally increased lending margins on its loans. Later on, it admitted that this had been a mistake, and it employed one of the Big-4 to conduct a review. Many borrowers received redress, although the calculations that provided this redress were not always made clear. The bank also introduced an interest rate floor on these loans, of either 2.5% or 3%. It has not so far address this unilateral penalty, but it is time that it does. Base Rates at the time were 0.50% and while Bank of Cyprus would not be considered a prime bank, with easy access to the cheapest interbank funding, its funding rates were certainly less than 2.5% to 3%. This increased interest indebtedness for the borrowers affected, and several ended up losing their homes, or were made bankrupt. This is another abuse of position, and we have called the bank out on it.

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