What finally happened in Cyprus?

[Recyclersteve]

I heard all kinds of stories about the bail-ins in banks in Cyprus back around March-April and I remember reading that for clients who had 100,000 Euros or less that they wouldn't lose a thing. Wasn't the bail-in amount needed either $10 billion in dollars or Euros (which would be more like $13 billion)? What actually happened or has the money been seized at this point? When was money seized? What were the percentages for the various banks, etc.? I'd like specifics if possible and links with details if anyone knows of any. There was a lot of talk about this in April, but then it got very quiet for some reason. Any info that people have would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot.

[TwoPenniesEarned]

80% of the cash over $100,000 was stolen.

The model has now been written into law in Canada for sure. Read it in the budget myself. Alex Jones says it's legalized in the U.S. as well I think...but I haven't seen the law. Any US Citizens want to weigh in?

[AGgressive Metal]

It didn't cause as much chaos as predicted because most of that money was black market Russian mob money - most normal citizens don't have 100k+ cash just sitting in a bank account unless they have just won a lawsuit or received an inheritance, etc. Most people, if they are above board and paying taxes, generally prefer to put that kind of cash into their house, real estate, retirement accounts, stock market, bonds, CDs, trust fund, children's college, etc. Of course it was still highly immoral what happened for the people who did get taken advantage of, including probably some elderly who were being conservative with their money and doing what they thought was the safe bet.

It seemed like a western shakedown of Russian mob to show them who's boss, but I could be wrong because I'm not an expert on those kind of things.

[nero12345]

It didn't cause as much chaos as predicted because most of that money was black market Russian mob money - most normal citizens don't have 100k+ cash just sitting in a bank account unless they have just won a lawsuit or received an inheritance, etc. Most people, if they are above board and paying taxes, generally prefer to put that kind of cash into their house, real estate, retirement accounts, stock market, bonds, CDs, trust fund, children's college, etc. Of course it was still highly immoral what happened for the people who did get taken advantage of, including probably some elderly who were being conservative with their money and doing what they thought was the safe bet.

It seemed like a western shakedown of Russian mob to show them who's boss, but I could be wrong because I'm not an expert on those kind of things.

Seems like you pretty much hit on the head. Terrible deal for all affected except, perhaps , the Russian mob. Although they always seem to come out ahead regardless.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-ba ... -1.1320808

Yeah sounds like Canada's toast if push comes to shove.

[TwoPenniesEarned]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-bail-in-plan-shouldn-t-worry-canadians-carney-says-1.1320808

Yeah sounds like Canada's toast if push comes to shove.

LOL! In the headline of the article Carney said it would be "hard to fathom deposits would be touched", while having just fathomed that very thing and written down the how's and why's and what-fors in our budget law.

We are truly living in 1984. War is Peace. It's hard to Fathom taking your deposits, so don't worry about this little law that does just that, etc. Lord help us...

A lot of British expatriots lost almost their entire retirement. I was reading about one woman that had $600,000 socked away for retirement. Now she has $200,000. It's repulsive and disgusting.

This will happen to us. If it is not outright theft a la Cyprus it will be through draconian taxation of retirement savings accounts. I'm going to empty my tax deferred retirement accounts this year and hide the money properly. The problem with a tax deferred account is that since you haven't paid the taxes on it yet, you have to pay the going rate when you take it out...which we all know is going to be a hell of a lot higher than now....if you are able to take the money out at all.

In Canada we are lucky to have something called a "Tax Free Savings Account". So I'm emptying my tax deferred RRSP and putting what's left after the government has scooped what they consider their share into my untaxed TFSA.

[johnbrickner]

We are truly living in 1984. War is Peace. It's hard to Fathom taking your deposits, so don't worry about this little law that does just that, etc. Lord help us...

A lot of British expatriots lost almost their entire retirement. I was reading about one woman that had $600,000 socked away for retirement. Now she has $200,000. It's repulsive and disgusting.

This will happen to us.

Ahhh, Newspeak and Thoughtpolice. I had forgotten the details. Time to re-read. Thanx TwoPennies for opening the Pandora's box in my mind.

[Engineer]

Ahhh, Newspeak and Thoughtpolice. I had forgotten the details. Time to re-read. Thanx TwoPennies for opening the Pandora's box in my mind.

You're not supposed to be thinking about the thought police. Go back to your business...

[fansubs_ca]

In Canada we are lucky to have something called a "Tax Free Savings Account". So I'm emptying my tax deferred RRSP and putting what's left after the government has scooped what they consider their share into my untaxed TFSA.

I'd thought of doing the same thing (for slightly different reasons) but little bit at a time
so I don't do enough in one year to go into the next tax bracket. Problem is on my self
directed account there is a $50 withdrawl fee on each RRSP withdrawl which encourages
the opposite behaviour of do as much as possible at once. (When I started the RRSP
the intent was to keep the money in until actual retirement becasue we didn't have
TFSAs then, if we did I would have just went with a TFSA in the first place.)

I currently deal with RBC Action Direct for both RRSP and TFSA. (The securities in both
are heavily slanted towards precious metals.) Is there someplace that offers self directed
RRSP brokerage accounts where I wouldn't get hit with a fee each time I made an RRSP
withdrawl? It might be worth it long term to pay a one time transfer fee instead

[fansubs_ca]

Also wondering if the initial limits on sending money out of the country and daily withdrawl
limits at Cyprus based banks have been lifted. If that's still ongoing it's gotta be a major
pain for anyone living or doing business there.