Elias Neocleous & Co

On July 8 2018 the Cyprus Parliament approved a package of legislative measures aimed at creating market security, stability and growth, and strengthening the legal framework to deal with non-performing loans. The amendments took effect on July 31, when the amending laws were published in the government Gazette. The principal changes are as follows:

Cyprus's new law on alternative investment funds, Law 124(I)/2018, has now entered into effect following its publication in the official gazette.

Under the Basel III regime, in order to counter cyclicality in the financial system, capital should be accumulated when cyclical systemic risk is judged to be increasing, creating a countercyclical capital buffer (CCB) that increases the resilience of the banking sector during periods of stress when losses materialise. This will help maintain the supply of credit and moderate the downswing of the financial cycle. The requirement to add to the CCB also dampens excessive credit growth during the upswing of the financial cycle.