The developments surrounding the acquisition of cdb Bank, the investment in Wealthyhood, and Bank of Cyprus’ expansion into the Indian market were addressed by the Group’s CEO, Panicos Nicolaou, during the presentation of the Group’s first-quarter financial results.
Regarding the acquisition of cdb Bank, Nicolaou stated that “an agreement has been signed, and there are certain conditions that need to be met for the acquisition to be completed.”
“The procedures are progressing as planned, and we hope that by the end of 2026 the process will be finalised and all necessary approvals from the Central Bank and the Competition Protection Commission will be obtained,” he added.
On the investment in the Wealthyhood platform, the Bank of Cyprus CEO revealed that a new application is currently being developed, through which the Bank’s customers will be able to participate. He estimated that it will be ready by June. “If it is not completed by the end of May, it will certainly be ready within June,” he noted.
When asked whether this would be a different application from Wealthyhood’s existing one, Nicolaou confirmed that it would. “These are two separate platforms, developed in collaboration, enabling the Bank to offer its customers the ability to invest easily in global and local stocks, as well as in simple ETFs,” he explained.
As for the Bank’s international expansion and the opening of an office in India, Nicolaou said: “We have submitted an application to the Central Bank of Cyprus for approval to establish a representative office in India.”
“Once we receive approval, we will submit a similar application to the Reserve Bank of India. We estimate that this process will take 12 to 18 months, but yes, it is our intention to open a representative office in India,” he added.
More broadly on its international strategy, Nicolaou concluded: “We are proceeding cautiously, aiming to increase our contribution to new lending from abroad, and our goal is to gradually raise our international portfolio from 13% today to 15%.”
