AUGUST 2018

GLOBAL UPDATES
CYPRUS
Investigation
ordered into the
downfall of the Cyprus
Co-operative Bank
p President Nicos Anastasiades defended his
government’s handling of the crisis (Photo:
European People’s Party)
Cyprus’s attorney general has appointed
a three-member panel to investigate the
crisis at the country’s Co-operative Bank.
The team is headed by Giorgos Arestis
– a former Supreme Court and EU court
judge, alongside economist Giorgos
Charalambous, a former Bank of Cyprus
executive, former board member of the
development bank and former head of
the securities and exchange commission,
and Giorgos Georgiou, a former executive
at Alpha Bank and former chair of the
bank association.
They will look at issues such as staff
appointments, administration and
corporate governance, including the
structure, power and authority of the
members of key management bodies.
Also under scrutiny will be loan
procedures and the management of bad
debts. There has been much comment
in Cyprus’ national press about the ease
with which loans were granted, including
allegations of easy loans to friends and
relatives of staff.
The bank, which has been sold to
Hellenic Bank as part of the Cypriot
government’s plans to eliminate bad debt
in the national banking system, had to be
bailed out in 2013.
There has been widespread anger in
Cyprus over the crisis at the bank, with
calls from opposition parties for the
resignation of finance minister Harris
Georgiades. Critics blame him for the
bank’s problems and accuse him of
selling it on unfavourable conditions for
the state, including the issue of a €2.5bn
(£2.2bn) bond in favour of the purchaser
and guarantees against unforeseen losses.
But Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades
said: “The bank’s problems were neither
created nor the result of political decisions
by the finance minister.”
Fears that the bank might be liquidated
have sparked long ATM queues as people
withdraw their money, and it has been
reported that more than €70m has been
taken out.
Attempting to quell concerns, a
spokesman for Cyprus’s central bank
said the liquidation of the Co-operative
Bank was only a “remote, theoretical
probability” which had only been
highlighted “to stress the most extreme
negative consequences if the transfer of
the Cyprus Cooperative Bank to Hellenic
Bank is not completed”.
Meanwhile a protest group, the
Movement Against Foreclosures, held
street rallies protesting against tougher
measures on bad mortgage debt.
The Citizen’s Alliance party said the
government had “catastrophically brought
things, yet again, to a tragic impasse”.
USA
Farmer-owned
data co-op offers new
insights on crop yields
The only farmer-run data co-op in the
USA has unveiled a new suite of ag tech
offerings, which it says will help growers
improve operations at all levels.
The Grower Information Services
Cooperative (GiSC) offers a secure platform
for member farmers to capture, store and
optimise their operational and yield data.
Its repository of anonymous member
data from across the country is continually
refreshed, aggregated and analysed to
produce relevant insights for growers.
The co-op also works with IBM and
Main Street Data to give members
access to advanced weather and data
analytic capabilities, and data tools for
benchmarking and operational insights.
GiSC chief executive Billy Tiller said:
“Our goal is to provide for growers the
obvious benefits of ag technology in a way
that protects their interests. Our platform
gives them security and control over their
intellectual property – farm operation
data – while also allowing them to realise
the value of operational benchmarks
and insights, and the latest in ag data
analytics.”
A new series of data tools from Main
Street Data includes the Validator, which
allows GiSC members to make sure their
farming practice decisions meet their
production goals. It allows them to see,
at subfield-level, any gaps between yield
potential and actual yields, and provides
performance comparison to others
farming under similar conditions.
This tool is operational in corn and
soybeans, with other crops available for
benchmarking in the near future.
“The Validator is the first in the
set of grower-centric tools we plan to
deliver,” said Ron LeMay, chief executive
of Main Street Data. “Our goal in this
collaboration is to serve as the farmers’
advocate, an independent resource
of data and data science solutions to
address the issues they face and allow
them to leverage opportunities to improve
their productivity, profitability and
sustainability.”
AUGUST 2018 | 17