By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, October
2 -- After
Turkish
Cypriot leader
Mustafa Akinci
met with UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon on October
2, Inner City
Press
asked him if
there was any
movement on
the hydrocarbons
issues, video
here.
Akinci
described the
issue as a
potential
win-win,
speaking of
gas from
Israel and
potable water
from Turkey,
and new
relationships.
He did not
answer Inner
City Press
about his
bilateral
meetings with
Sweden, New
Zealand and
the EU's
Federica
Mogherini, but
he did later
confirm that
US Secretary
of State John
Kerry said he
wants to visit
the island in
November.
Back on
July 30, 2014
when
the
International
Monetary Fund
took questions
about Cyprus
on an
embargoed
media call
about its
concluding
statement for
the 2014
Article IV
Consultation
and its fifth
review of
Cyprus’s
economic
program on
July 30, most
were about
foreclosures.
The
IMF's Mission
Chief for
Cyprus Delia
Velculescu
said several
times that the
next tranche
of the bailout
is unlikely in
September if a
law speeding
foreclosures
is not enacted
by then,
despite nearly
across the
board
opposition
from political
parties.
For
example,
deputy
spokesman
Athos
Antoniades
said. “The
Democratic
Party will not
vote on such a
sensitive
issue with a
gun to its
head.”
But
that is the
situation: no
law, no money.
Inner
City Press
asked
Velculescu
about the
discrepancies
between
PIMCO's
estimate of
what Cyprus'
banks needed,
and the lower
BlackRock
estimate that
has recently
come to light.
Velculescu
replied
that “at the
time of the
on-set of the
program the
requirement
was for an
independent
assess of
capital needs
in the banking
sector.” She
said,
“Countries
have decided
of course on
individual
independent
assessors...
PIMCO was
chosen in
Cyrus.”
Backing
up
PIMCO and the
resulting
capitalization
framework (and
“bail-in”),
Velculescu
said, “we
believe the
assessment was
done
independently...
with
methodology
that were
specific to
the company
that undertook
it.”
Inner
City Press
asked, “So
BlackRock was
wrong?”
Velculescu
replied,
“BlackRock was
not chosen for
the assessment
that was
undertaken in
Cyprus.. the
recapitalization
was done under
PIMCO..
BlackRock was
the assessor
in another
country.”
So is
this a case of
two financial
firms snarking
at each other,
on a
competitive
basis, or as
PIMCO acting
for those who
wanted to
justify the
bail-in and
the “gun to
the head” that
has come
afterwards?
We'll have
more on this.
, 
