Bank of Cyprus head sacked under bailout deal

The chief executive of the Bank of Cyprus, the island's biggest lender, has been sacked by the central bank governor as part of an international bailout deal, state media said on Wednesday. Yiannis Kypri was fired on the instructions of the so-called troika of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported. It said his departure was ordered as part of the restructuring of the Bank of Cyprus under the bailout deal, which involves the bank absorbing the remains of Laiki, the second biggest bank in Cyprus that has been wound down. Central Bank Governor Panicos Demetriades, who sacked Kypri, said on Tuesday that under the deal large depositors in the Bank of Cyprus would become shareholders, which would in turn mean the election of a new leadership. The sacking of the chief executive comes a day after Kypri addressed hundreds of Bank of Cyprus employees at its headquarters. They were angered by the appointment of an administrator for the lender. The board of the Bank of Cyprus, meanwhile, rejected the resignation of chairman Andreas Artemis and four other board members on Tuesday. The 10-billion-euro ($13-billion) deal sealed with the troika in Brussels on Monday calls for the reform of Cyprus's prized but bloated banking sector and deals a major hit to big depositors. All Cypriot lenders have been closed since March 16, but CNA said capital controls to prevent a run on banks and allow them to reopen on Thursday as scheduled were expected to be announced later on Wednesday.