23/08/2013 13:48
Former Central Bank Governor, Athanasios Orphanides accused current CB Governor that in cooperation with Christofias government sought to hit the credibility of the banking system and the CB.
Mr. Orphanides, who testified today to the inquiry committee for the economy and invited to comment on various reports by independent firms and experts about the gaps and weaknesses in the supervisory role of CB during his terms of office, defended the supervision applied by him. “These reports made by firms and experts appointed Mr. Demetriades were guided”.
Specifically, referring to the A&M report, Mr. Orphanides claimed that this house is not an expert to examine weaknesses of banking systems.
"The CB management itself used a guided research to insinuate things against the banking system and the supervision as this was previously conducted" claimed Mr. Orphanides.
He said that during his terms of office he upgraded the service of the supervisory control of banks.
He paid vacancies and made promotions to have a strong structure of this important service.
He also said that he improved significantly the system of corporate governance of the CB and the banks. "All this could not be done from one day to another. I agree that it was one of the weaknesses I pointed out and I managed to make improvements. "
"I am convinced that the A&M report is not objective and not just on this issue."
Acquisition of Uniastrum
On the question why he approved the acquisition of Russian bank Uniastrum by Bank of Cyprus Mr. Orphanides tried to convince the members of the committee that based on the data of the time such an acquisition was favourable for Bank of Cyprus.
"The whole issue of acquisition of Uniastrum was handled by the licensing agency of CB, which made an independent evaluation. There were both negative and positive elements. After the report, the service had contacts with the Russian organization and requested clarifications and explanations for the negative remarks. The explanations were convincing and satisfactory "he said.
Defending the decision of the CB to approve the license for the acquisition of Uniastrum, the former CB Governor said that "the bank had several branches that were new and were not profitable and therefore gave very good prospects at this level."
“When buying a banking organization, prospect must be taken into account as an important factor. And Uniastrum gave this prospect,"he said.
"The way that I evaluated the request of BOCY was based on data from that era. The Board of Directors of Bank of Cyprus made good planning. Russia was a country with great potential and a banking system that was in its early steps. BOCY’s entrance in this market was a positive development because it did dispersion of risk, "he said.
Mr. Orphanides, who testified today to the inquiry committee for the economy and invited to comment on various reports by independent firms and experts about the gaps and weaknesses in the supervisory role of CB during his terms of office, defended the supervision applied by him. “These reports made by firms and experts appointed Mr. Demetriades were guided”.
Specifically, referring to the A&M report, Mr. Orphanides claimed that this house is not an expert to examine weaknesses of banking systems.
"The CB management itself used a guided research to insinuate things against the banking system and the supervision as this was previously conducted" claimed Mr. Orphanides.
He said that during his terms of office he upgraded the service of the supervisory control of banks.
He paid vacancies and made promotions to have a strong structure of this important service.
He also said that he improved significantly the system of corporate governance of the CB and the banks. "All this could not be done from one day to another. I agree that it was one of the weaknesses I pointed out and I managed to make improvements. "
"I am convinced that the A&M report is not objective and not just on this issue."
Acquisition of Uniastrum
On the question why he approved the acquisition of Russian bank Uniastrum by Bank of Cyprus Mr. Orphanides tried to convince the members of the committee that based on the data of the time such an acquisition was favourable for Bank of Cyprus.
"The whole issue of acquisition of Uniastrum was handled by the licensing agency of CB, which made an independent evaluation. There were both negative and positive elements. After the report, the service had contacts with the Russian organization and requested clarifications and explanations for the negative remarks. The explanations were convincing and satisfactory "he said.
Defending the decision of the CB to approve the license for the acquisition of Uniastrum, the former CB Governor said that "the bank had several branches that were new and were not profitable and therefore gave very good prospects at this level."
“When buying a banking organization, prospect must be taken into account as an important factor. And Uniastrum gave this prospect,"he said.
"The way that I evaluated the request of BOCY was based on data from that era. The Board of Directors of Bank of Cyprus made good planning. Russia was a country with great potential and a banking system that was in its early steps. BOCY’s entrance in this market was a positive development because it did dispersion of risk, "he said.
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