The initial steps to establish a new Co-operative Bank will begin on 22 July with the issuance of 42 million shares. Following years of discussions and viability studies after the 2018 collapse of the Cyprus Co-operative Central Bank and its credit societies network, the vision to resurrect the institution is transitioning into concrete corporate procedures.
Panicos Hambas, president of the Pancyprian Co-operative Society for Holdings and Promotion of Co-operation, acknowledged that while the venture faces significant challenges, the objective remains entirely achievable.
The project requires securing initial capital and forming a leadership team before submitting a formal application to the Central Bank of Cyprus. To avoid delays, organizers are advancing both pillars concurrently. Under the current framework, a new entity named “Pancyprian Co-operative Society” will be incorporated. Upon securing regulatory licences, it will be renamed the Pancyprian Co-operative Bank.
The organizers project that if the process moves smoothly, the formal application will be submitted to the Central Bank by the end of 2026. Under this optimistic timeline, final regulatory approval could be secured within 2028.
The share issue commencing on 22 July will release 42 million new shares with a nominal value of one euro each. The minimum subscription is set at 100 shares, meaning individual citizens can participate with a base investment of 100 euros. The share sale will run until 17 November through the Athlos Capital platform.
If the share sale fails to raise the target capital or a sum sufficient to satisfy regulatory viability studies by 17 November, organizers retain the right to launch a secondary share offering. Organizers noted that whilst initial public interest from individual citizens, organized groups, and corporate entities is high, this must now translate into binding share purchases.
Zoning rules dictate that only Cyprus-registered companies can purchase the corporate allocation. Corporate entities and legal bodies will hold 40% of the total equity, with their voting rights calculated proportionally based on their shareholdings. Conversely, individual citizens will hold 60% of the equity under a democratic structure, where each individual retains exactly one vote regardless of the number of shares they own.
To progress the regulatory application, the bank must also appoint its Board of Directors. To ensure competitive operations from day one, organizers intend to appoint individuals with extensive experience in the banking sector. Preliminary approaches to specific banking executives have already occurred, though their identities remain strictly confidential.
To maintain transparency, candidate selections will take place after independent third-party consultants evaluate all executive CVs, mirroring the recruitment procedures used by large corporate institutions.
The effort represents a collective movement spanning all political and ideological lines on the island, Hambas told Phileleftheros. The overarching objective is to merge traditional co-operative principles with modern banking demands, he said.
Addressing how the new institution will prevent the historic structural failures that led to the previous system’s collapse in 2018, Hambas emphasized that long-term commercial sustainability is paramount, and all future lending operations will require strict, fully verified collateral.