The Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) raised the level of capital buffer that Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic Bank need to maintain as a result of their systemic importance, on Tuesday.

According to a press release, CBC "concluded its annual reassessment of the designation of credit institutions that meet the definition of O-SII institutions for 2023. In particular, the CBC designated Bank of Cyprus Public Company Ltd, Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd, Eurobank Cyprus Ltd, Astrobank Ltd and Αlpha Bank Cyprus Ltd as Other Systemically Important Institutions (O-SII institutions) and set the level of the capital buffer that they must maintain as a result of their systemic importance".

Compared to the last update that took place on December 2nd, 2022, Bank of Cyprus has to raise its O-SII buffer requirement to 1.875%, starting January 1st, 2023, up from 1.50% it was in 2023. Respectively, Hellenic Bank has to raise its capital buffer to 1.25% from 1% in 2023.

Eurobank keeps its

The capital buffer for Eurobank was left unchanged at 0.75%, whereas for Astrobank and Alpha Bank remained at 0.25%.

For 2025, Bank of Cyprus has to further increase its capital buffer to 2.25% and Hellenic Bank to 1.5%. As regards the rest of the banks described as "systemically important institutions" they have to maintain their capital buffer rates at the same level for 2025.