The Bank of Greece and the Central Bank of Cyprus, expressing their mutual interest and willingness in establishing and promoting bilateral ties in supervising credit institutions, signed on 18 March, 2005 in Athens a “Memorandum of Understanding”. The Bank of Greece is the competent authority for the regulation and supervision of the banking sector in Greece. The Central Bank of Cyprus, in addition to being the country’s monetary authority, is also the banking supervisory / regulatory authority as well as the licensing and regulatory authority for International Collective Investment Schemes under the International Collective Investment Schemes Law of 1999.
The “Memorandum of Understanding” has been signed on behalf of the Bank of Greece by its Governor Mr. Nikolaos Garganas and on behalf of the Central Bank of Cyprus by its Governor Mr. Christodoulos Christodoulou.
The “Memorandum of Understanding” defines a general framework of mutual co-operation and exchange of information between the above two authorities with a view of facilitating co-operation for effective consolidated supervision of cross-border establishments and performance of their respective duties for the safe and sound functioning of credit institutions in their respective countries, in accordance with their respective laws and regulations. Currently, three Cyprus banks operate in Greece, two of which in the form of branches and one in the form of a subsidiary bank, while, four Greek banks operate in Cyprus, three of which in the form of subsidiaries and one in the form of branch. The co-operation of the two Authorities will be governed by the provisions of the relevant European Union Directives and, in particular, the provisions of the Codified Banking Directive 2000/12/EC as well as the internationally acceptable and applied principles of the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision.
The Central Bank of Cyprus pursues an active policy of signing “Memoranda of Understanding” for co-operation and exchange of information, in the fields of its competence, with respective overseas authorities.
In the field of banking supervision the Central Bank of Cyprus has signed “Memoranda of Understanding” with the Central Banks of countries whose banks already have or may have, in the immediate future, a presence in Cyprus. “Memoranda of Understanding” in this field have already been signed with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Bulgarian National Bank, the National Bank of Ukraine, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, the National Bank of Yugoslavia, the National Bank of Romania,the Financial and Capital Market Commission of the Republic of Latvia, the National Bank of Slovakia, the Bank of Tanzania and the Central Bank of Jordan. Moreover, negotiations are currently being carried out with another eleven overseas banking supervisory authorities for the signing of similar documents.