This is actually what happened in 2013, we went to sleep on a Friday night with everything being fine just to wake on Saturday morning to hear Laiki(popular bank, 2nd largest bank) has closed, they knew before hand that the bank would close for good, the big boys moved all their money out beforehand, the normal peasants including myself was left in the dark, you could remove €60 a day from the Atms, and you would stand in ques for hours to remove €60,so alternatively you would use your credit card, just so the bank wouldn't steal your money, before you know it Cyprus was broke & people jobless for almost 2years. The rest is a first for history.

Good content! Thank you.

The banking crisis was a bit more complicated. Lot’s of outside money, like Russian, were deposited in Cyprus Banks. Cyprus is small and does not have a lot of investment opportunities for the banks to make to cover the interest rates to the depositors. To remedy that, they bought Greek bonds offering high interest rates. Once Greece debt collapsed -the EU, see Germany, forced a haircut of the Greek debt. This left the Cyprus banks exposed as they lost their money in Greece. The EU lend money to Cyprus Gov to send to the Greek subsidiaries of the Cyprus banks. The Cyprus gov was responsible for paying that loan. Then the EU liquidated the Cyprus subsidiaries in Greece and gave them to Greek Banks for peanuts. So the EU lend the money to Cyprus Gov, Cyprus Gov gave the money to Cyprus Banks, Cyprus Banks sent the money to the Greek subsidiaries, Greek subsidiaries were handed for almost free to Greek banks…..Cyprus taxpayer needs to pay the loans. After this the Cyprus Banks found themselves underwater. Germany came up with another idea. Instead of lending money to Cyprus to prop its banks up they just took the money of the depositors to recapitalize the Cyprus banks. Beyond weird….and I didn’t believe it back then….Merkel’s plan worked in the sense that the Cyprus financial crisis was over much faster than Greece’s and the long term effects are much milder than those in Greece. Cyprus paid off the debts ahead of time….

Hey Rico! As usual another great video with a lot of insights. Quickly wanted to drop my personal experience about corporate bank accounts in cyprus. I tried to apply for a corporate account first at smaller banks (astro, eurobank) as well Hellenic where i hold a personal account at. Astro and Eurobank handle it roughly as you mentioned, Hellenic i didn´t even got a reply from the business branch manager after over a month even though the contact was handled via my lawyer in Paphos. But Alpha Bank was different in my case, i got feedback from the branch manager in two days. They sen´t me the needed documents for opening a corporate account a few days later. (Pretty much the documents you mentioned) But i got a call 4 days later that my corporate account was ready for signing. As well i DID NOT pay any APPLICATION FEE with them. What i do need to mention as you know my business has existed since 2009 and we moved the business to cyprus via redomiciliation and we could supply a lot of previous business history i don´t know if that might have made things easier. But i was surprised how smooth it wen´t with them!

Hey Rico. Thanks for the amazing video again, I have a non-related question of the video. Where is the beach located in the video at 4:26? And where are the best surfing beaches in Cyprus. Thanks again for the video and channel.

Hey Rico, I have been watching your videos for more than half a year because I am seriously considering moving to Cyprus. First time I comment. As far as I know, Viva Wallet is more than 10 years old company and popular in Greece. Recently, J.P. Morgan closed a deal to own 48.5% stake in Viva Wallet. Don't count it as an endorsement.

CY IBAN? Is the VivaWallet? Are you using it to receive VAT back directly there? Does it work? I am thinking of opening an account there as well, just to get VAT refund. Thanks for the great and accurate content you create!!

As an eu member,I CANNOT open personal bank account without proof of employment! With proof of address etc also,so that's another MUST HAVE.

Hey Rico, your videos are great, I wish all nomad youtubers would go into detail like this. Can you tell me, how much do you think all together it would cost to setup a business and bank account in Cyprus?

Nice video, Rico. Thank you! The quality of healthcare is also another very important topic to discuss. What are your thoughts about this subject? Does Cyprus have great medical care (on par with Germany, UK or US)? What if someone has a serious medical condition or needs a major surgery in Cyprus?..

niceee

Hi , brother I hope you are doing well, I have seen your videos, those are very informative.I really do appreciate your work I would like to ask you one question, may I?

Revoult, Paysera, e.t.c. you can not create new company account in Cyprus anymore, WorldFirst is only - who do this, my recent experience.

What if you are a non resident who is trying to buy a property in Cyprus? How would you open a bank account there in that instance?Thanks

Very helpful video to many 👍 Revolut is absolutely fantastic. Hands down THE best banking app I've ever used in any country. What's worth noting is that Revolut also is a European bank and therefore has deposit insurance of up to 100K while Wise might not. Wise's app is solid but inferior to Revolut and Wise has more limitations overall.

Hi Rico.. Was looking at Cyprus. My main income is from crypto trading and investing. If I do that in company will that be taxed? What if I invest in crypto as a private person how will the tax be?

Is it possible to open a bank account as a tourist?

I have a Cyprus ltd since august 2021 and Wise and Revolut do not accept Cyprus companies anymore...What is the new bank you mentioned? Juni?

The government just took people's money like that??

Happened to my dad took 100 k of him they was a millionaire in are village lost everything

Shanthi

They took money 💰 and promised shares

Rico go to my village kiti beautiful village

Interesting and useful video. Thank you. PS : not afraid with the problems regarding "Revolut"? > "Revolut is under pressure from its auditors to improve internal controls after UK regulators highlighted significant flaws in the auditing of its accounts, including an “unacceptably high” risk of “material misstatement” (Financial Times /september 2022)

I believe that you are ill advising foreign companies about opening an account with Revolut as Revolut is not under any central bank authority and therefore the money deposited could dissappear without anybody knowing where. Furthermore you mentioned that the Cypriots did not have much money in the Banks and mostly foreigners lost money from haircut in 2013 which again is inconsistent with reality as besides Cypriot companies which lost a lot of money many individual Cypriots lost money from their deposits and provident funds suffered haircuts meaning that employees lost a substantial amount of money. In addition, Cypriots who had shares in Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank lost all their shares as these Banks were owned by Cypriots and not foreign companies. As a result, I would advise you to know the exact facts prior to misleading future investors in Cyprus