Bailout, Euro Zone Bailout | featured news

Cyprus' lawmakers approved on Tuesday a multi-billion bailout agreement with international creditors aimed at preventing the crisis-hit country from going bankrupt.

Germany's lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to grant Cyprus a 10 billion euro bailout that is designed to avert bankruptcy for the tiny Mediterranean island nation and keep it in the euro zone.

EU finance ministers agreed to allow Portugal and Ireland to repay their bailout loans later than initially agreed, in a bid to help the two governments wean themselves off bailout money in the coming year.

Some key data about bond purchases by Bank of Cyprus - now the focus of a controversial EU-IMF bailout - is missing, investigators have found. The gaps were found in computer records studied by a financial consultancy, Alvarez and Marsal, Cypriot media say.

The International Monetary Fund will contribute 1 billion euros ($1.29 billion) over three years to the 10 billion euro bailout for Cyprus, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement on Wednesday.

Michalis Sarris resigned after announcing the final terms of a bailout for the nation’s banking system that imposed heavy losses on bank depositors in return for aid.

With time running out until Cyprus’s devastated banks must reopen their doors to the public, Cypriot and European officials are scrambling to put in place a set of measures that would allow jittery depositors access to their savings while preventing many billions of euros from fleeing the country.

Antreas Artemis, the chairman of Bank of Cyprus, contended that he and the bank's board were not consulted in bailout negotiations that would impose large losses on depositors.

Homeowners have told of how sales of their properties are on hold and businesses have called for clarity amid banking uncertainty in Cyprus. The country is braced for an emergency session of its parliament, and a planned vote, regarding a 10bn euro ($13bn; £9bn) financial rescue.

Over the course of five days, the Greek government -- led by the understated conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras -- overcame two high hurdles in a dash to qualify for the austerity program set out by the so-called troika, made up of the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission.