Today’s meeting of the National Solidarity Fund’s management committee ended without fanfare, with the Director General of the Ministry of Finance announcing to depositors and bondholders who suffered haircuts that, ultimately, no new disbursement plan will be drawn up for 2026.

“We agreed in 2025, for reasons of fiscal discipline and other factors, that a new plan would be drawn up each year, and today we were informed that there will be no new plan for 2026.”
Adonis Papakonstantinou – President of the Laiki Depositors’ Association

Regarding the 2025 plan, which concerned the first installment of 100 million, 30 million remain. This amount pertains to eligible individuals who did not correctly enter their information on the platform; the platform will reopen so they can complete their information.

Today, the fund has 240 million that has not been used at all after the 100 million was deducted.

“The excuses they gave us—pardon my language—are very flimsy because the 2025 plan did not include legal entities. Second, the 2025 plan did not include former shareholders of the Bank of Cyprus. They had been seeking a legal opinion on these matters for two years. And today we were told that, according to the questions submitted by the legal department, there is a possibility that if these groups are included, the financial calculations will change.”
Adonis Papakonstantinou

Tonight, SYKALA and the Bondholders’ Association will hold an online conference to decide on their next steps. They are requesting a meeting with the President of the Republic, noting that he promised them one thing, but the reality they faced today was quite different.

“Personally, I had received assurances from the President, because we’ve been exchanging emails over the past few weeks, and the President assured me that we shouldn’t worry because the matter would be handled. Now, when he said it would be handled, he didn’t tell us what kind of handling he was referring to, but he told us not to worry. Apparently, we were right to be concerned.”
Adonis Papakonstantinou

From the ministry’s perspective, what we were told is that the platform will reopen to complete the payment of the first installment, and consultations will continue regarding what will happen in the coming years.

Watch Kleio Vourkou’s report:

“The platform for applications will reopen for those who missed the deadline”

The platform for submitting claims for compensation to depositors affected by the haircut will reopen so that those who missed the deadline can apply, and payments will proceed based on the results, said the President of the Republic, Nicos Christodoulides.

Arriving at the Invest Cyprus International Investment Awards ceremony, and responding to a journalist’s remark that depositors affected by the haircut were informed today that there would be no new plan for 2026, the President of the Republic said, “Let me remind you that despite the many promises made, our government was the only one that actually followed through on its pre-election pledges after the election. What has been said is that a number of depositors who suffered haircuts or held securities were unable to submit an application on the platform when it first opened.”

As he noted, “the platform will now reopen so that all those who were unable to submit applications can do so; these will be reviewed, and depending on the results, we will proceed with the payment —a specific amount has been allocated in the 2026 budget, and there is a new plan for 2027. This is something we promised before the election. It’s something we began implementing after the election, and we will continue to do so.”