No room for bad bank, IMF says

By Angelos Anastasiou

There is no room for the creation of an asset-management company (AMC) that will be funded – entirely or in part – by taxpayer money to address the issue of non-performing loans in the banking system, the International Monetary Fund’s resident representative in Cyprus Vincenzo Guzzo said on Thursday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, Guzzo said it would be a mistake, after the efforts made thus far to strengthen public finances, to use the government’s balance sheet in order to fix the banks’ balance sheets, and noted that attracting private funds to create a privately-owned and funded AMC could be a viable alternative.