The Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) designated on Friday five banks in Cyprus, namely Bank of Cyprus Public Company Ltd, Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd, Eurobank Cyprus Ltd, AstroΒank Ltd and Αlpha Bank Cyprus Ltd as Other Systemically Important Institutions (O-SII Institutions), in the context of the revision of its relevant policy. 

In particular, the CBC said in a press release that it "revised its Policy for the designation of credit institutions that meet the definition of O-SII institutions and the methodology for the determination of the O-SII buffer requirement of each credit institution."

The CBC, it noted, "based on its revised Policy concluded its annual reassessment of the designation of credit institutions that meet the definition of O-SII institutions for 2024."

"In particular, the CBC designated Bank of Cyprus Public Company Ltd, Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd, Eurobank Cyprus Ltd, AstroΒank Ltd and Αlpha Bank Cyprus Ltd as Other Systemically Important Institutions (O-SII institutions) and set the level of the O-SII capital buffer that they must maintain as a result of their systemic importance," it said.

It added that "the revision of the Policy was based on a number of statistical methodologies, including corresponding methodologies of other central banks with respect to the determination of the O-SII buffer requirement."

At the same time, the CBC proceeded with "a comparative analysis of the domestic banking sector with those of the eurozone member states with similar characteristics", the press release concluded.