Meanwhile about Greek Cyprus, the tables have turned for Russian investors there. Greek Cyprus has sprung into action to clamp down on the wild freedoms of Russian businessmen -- eliciting the flight of Russian capital from the island -- and discouraged Russian hangers-on except bona fide tourists.
A door in Greek Cyprus. Doors have slammed shut throughout the Southern Cypriot financial world, sending once enormous Russian deposits and business activity off the idyllic eastern Mediterranean island
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Excerpt from January 2019 Bloomberg article :
"New banking business from Russia is “limited,” [Kyriakos] Iordanou [general manager of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus] said. His public accountants’ organization’s members are looking for opportunities from elsewhere, like China, India, the Middle East and Africa.
While some of the drop in numbers over the years stems from Russians... acquiring Cypriot nationality, affecting the way such funds are classified, tightened local rules are also beginning to bite.
Not Bankable
In November, a directive from the Central Bank of Cyprus kicked in, giving lenders less leeway to work with shell companies. That’s making many Russian companies “non-bankable,” said Iordanou.
Two Russian businessmen with accounts in Cyprus for over a decade said they were contacted by their banks over the past few months asking for documents from many years ago on the source of the money in their accounts. Unable to provide them, they were forced to close the accounts, they said, declining to be named.
“Cyprus banks require a lot of papers now,” said Alexander Ryazanov, Gazprom’s former deputy CEO, who has a real-estate business in Cyprus and has worked for many years with Cypriot banks. “It is very difficult to open a new account now.”
The central bank directive on money laundering involves avoiding dealings with entities deemed to be shell companies, which hits at the heart of Russian investments.
Moneyval, the council of Europe’s money-laundering watchdog, is conducting another evaluation of Cypriot measures to combat money-laundering and financing of terrorism. The results are expected in May.
‘Becoming Toxic’
Meanwhile, for Bank of Cyprus, the country’s largest lender, Russian clients now account for only 1.5 percent of the total and 5.7 percent of total deposits compared with 2.4 percent and 9.9 percent in 2014, according to the lender.
Although the central bank’s measures didn’t specifically target Russians, “one can argue that this group is affected to a larger degree than others,” said Demetris Taxitaris, general manager of Cyprus-based MAP S.Platis, a consultancy firm for financial services companies.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... n-business