The Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) was established in 1963 and its main role remains until today the monitoring and safeguarding of the stability of the financial sector. Regulation and supervision have, however, been strengthened since the bail in period, through a series of new legislations and practices which govern the operations of the banking institutions.
One of these measures is the Code of Conduct for loan restructuring issued by the CBC in 2013. The Code sets down provisions for the handling of borrowers in financial difficulties and is part of the Directive on Arrears Management of 2013. The Code is addressed to all financial institutions and aims to ensure that borrowers facing financial difficulties are offered the appropriate information and restructuring solutions for their loans.
During the last few years, the CBC has also issued a number of new directives, such as the Arrears Management Directives 2013-2015, the Directive on Governance and Management Arrangements in Credit Institutions, the Directive on the Preparation and Submission of Recovery Plans of 2014, the Loan Impairment and Provisioning Procedures Directives of 2014-2016, the Directive on Loan Origination Processes and Processes of Reviewing Existing Loans of 2013. Facing these new regulations, all credit institutions had to revise their operations, credit activities and most importantly their risk management strategies.