CYPRUS: \’Wine villages\’ protest closure of last remaining bank branch

Scores of residents from villages in Limassol’s wine-growing region took to the streets on Monday to protest Hellenic Bank’s decision to shut down a branch in the village of Pachna, the last remaining in the area.

A string of villages in the west of Limassol have been left without a single bank to serve them.

Talking to protestors who gathered at the village of Pachna, community leader Andreas Savva said a committee representing the communities have been campaigning for political parties to reverse the bank’s decision.

A total of 486 bank branches have closed in Cyprus over the past six years following the demise of two of its largest lenders, Laiki Bank and the Co-op in 2013 and 2018 respectively.

As a result, bank customers have seen service points drastically reduced by more than half. Before the economy crashed, in 2012, a year before the closure of Laiki Bank during the bailout, bank branches numbered a huge 850.

With the 2013 bailout and demise of second largest bank Laiki, and its absorption by Bank of Cyprus, the number of branches in Cyprus was reduced to 682.

The next wave of shrinkages came in 2016 with the number of branches falling by 140  to 544 and in 2017 that number shrank to 460.

Last year the demise of the Co-op and its good assists portfolio acquired by Hellenic Bank, the number of customer branches islandwide fell to 386.

Co-op branches served local communities, but the Hellenic deal has seen them disappear with rural villages feeling isolated and ignored. Hellenic is operating a bank on wheels scheme to serve areas where branches have closed.