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Marios Clerides, a well respected banker and economist and former chairman of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission was appointed the new chief executive officer of the nationalised Cooperative Central Bank in December 2013.

The island’s Cooperative banks are now 99%-owned by the state following a 1.5 bln euro capital injection as part of the 10 bln bailout for Cyprus agreed with the Troika of international lenders (EC, ECB and the IMF). Clerides, 62, until then Group Senior General Manager, Risk Management & Strategy of the Hellenic Bank, joined the island’s second biggest lender 31 years earlier in charge of planning and economic research. He was involved in various projects such as the introduction of ATMs in the bank, feasibility studies for the establishment of group subsidiary companies as well as in capital and bond issues of the bank.

In July 2001, he left Hellenic Bank to become chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) on a five-year contract and returned to the bank as Group General Manager, Risk Management. Thereafter he also assumed responsibility for Group Strategic Development, Economic Studies and Corporate Governance & Compliance.

At the same time he was teaching part-time at the University of Cyprus where he served on the council for the Centre for Economic Research and was Chairman of the Cyprus Banking Association. In April 2013, he was appointed to the National Council for the Economy, headed by economics Nobel laureate Dr Christoforos Pissarides that advises the President of Cyprus on economy issues and future policy.

Marios Clerides studied Economics (B.Sc. / M.Sc.) at the London School of Economics and in 1982 he was awarded the Doctorate of Philosophy from the same University (Ph.D. in Labour Economics).