This weekend on 3/16/13, under pressure from IMF bankers and a push from German politicians, a Cyprus bailout deal was approved that would take the bulk of the bailout fund from the private bank accounts of Cyprus bank depositors. Yes, you read that right; savers were determined to be the logical target to bail out the profligate.
The reaction from depositors, predictably, was intensely negative. They are furious and shocked.
[T]he news led to frenzied attempts by Cypriots to withdraw money from their bank accounts on Saturday.
People rushed to banks and queued at cash machines that refused to release cash as resentment quickly set in. The levy on savers, half of whom are thought to be non-resident Russians, will raise almost €6bn. The move in the Eurozone's third smallest economy could have repercussions for overstretched bigger economies such as Spain and Italy.
People with less than €100,000 in their accounts will have to pay a one-off tax of 6.75%, Eurozone officials said, while those with greater sums will lose 9.9%.
The prospect of savings being so savagely docked sparked terror among the island's resident British community. At the Anglican church's weekly Saturday thrift shop gathering in Nicosia, Cyprus's capital, expats expressed alarm, with many saying that they had also rushed to ATMs to withdraw money from their accounts.
"There's a run on banks. A lot of us are really panicking. The big fear is that there soon won't be cash in ATMs," said Arlene Skillett, who lives in Nicosia. "People are worried that they're automatically going to lose 10% [of their savings] in deposit accounts. Anastasiades won elections saying he wouldn't allow this to happen."
She said a lot of elderly Britons had transferred savings to the island when they decided to retire there. "Nobody can understand how they can do this – isn't it illegal? How can they just dock money from your account?" she asked.
In the coastal town of Larnaca, Cypriots described how they had queued from the early hours in the hope of withdrawing deposits from banks.
"A lot of us just can't believe it," said Alexandra Christofi, a divorcee in her 40s who said she had rushed to her bank before doors opened at 6am.
"I had put my money there for a rainy day.
by hrunner 
