Bondholders see light at the end of the tunnel

The House has shined a light at the end of the tunnel for thousands of non-institutional bondholders who saw their bonds suffer a haircut in the 2013 financial crisis.

MPs on Friday approved a supplementary state budget of EUR 25.2 mln, of which EUR 25 mln is to be added to the EUR 10 mln already approved for the creation of a reserve for the Solidarity Fund to compensate those who lost out.

Non-institutional bondholders who received a haircut in 2013 with the bail-in of the then failed bank of Laiki, have finally recovered some hope of seeing at least part of their savings returning into their pockets with the creation of the Solidarity Fund.

The supplementary budget was approved with the votes of 21 MPs, while 17 abstained the voting procedure.

The voting, however did not go smoothly as during the discussion there was tension between MPs, with House speaker Demetris Syllouris calling for a recess.

Tensions rose during the debate when DIKO President Nicolas Papadopoulos tabled an amendment to allocate a sum of money budgeted to the Youth Symphony Orchestra to be re-routed to the solidarity fund.

The Speaker of the House considered the amendment proposed irrelevant to the subject and dismissed it.

Syllouris insisted on several occasions that he did not accept the amendment, while AKEL Secretary General Andros Kyprianou spoke of parliamentary trickery, and AKEL MP Aristos Damianou stated that if DIKO insisted on its position, that would constitute a stance against parliamentary authority.