In the case of Jivraj v Hashwani [1], the U.K. Court of Appeal held that an arbitration agreement which provided that only persons of a certain religious belief could act as arbitrator was void because arbitrators fall within the scope of English anti-discrimination employment legislation in relation to religion and belief (the Employment Equality (Religion…
On the 19th July 2011, Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Luc Frieden conducted an official visit to Cyprus. According to the Luxembourg government Mr Frieden exchanged views with his Cypriot counterpart Charilaos Stavrakis, on recent developments in their respective financial sectors and on European and national legislation in this area. Within this context, Cyprus and Luxembourg agreed…
The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the Central Bank of Cyprus, expressing their mutual interest and willingness in promoting further the bilateral ties in the domain of supervision of credit institutions, concluded on 15 July 2011 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU has been signed on behalf of the CBRC by its Chairman…
The Qatar Exchange and the Cyprus Stock Exchange signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the 6th of June 2011 . The purpose of the Memorandum of Understanding was to formalize cooperation between the two markets. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Mr. Andre Went, CEO of Qatar Exchange and by Mr Epaminondas Metaxas, CEO…
The Ministry of Interior issued the following bulletin regarding the Town Planning Amnesty legislation which came into force on April 8 2011. The legislation aims at simplifying and modernising the procedures and legal provisions that eventually lead to the securing of updated title deeds by respective property owners. PLANNING AMNESTY BULLETIN LEGISLATION FOR THE MODERNISATION…
The European Commission has formally requested Cyprus to amend its legislation on depreciation scales for the calculation of excise duties on second-hand motorcycles because the current rules discriminate against imported motorcycles. Under current Cypriot legislation, owners of second-hand motorcycles have to pay an excise duty depending on the depreciation of these vehicles, i.e. their loss…
On the 14th of April 2011, the Cyprus Parliament unanimously passed the Bank Levy Legislation. The law establishes an Independent Financial Stability Fund for financial institutions. Provided that the totalamount of the levy does not exceed 20% of the total taxable profits of the financial Institution, as these are assessed by the Director of Inland…
Following a three-year investigation by the European Commission, called “purity”, Unilever and Procter & Gamble have been fined a total of 315m euros for fixing washing powder prices in eight European countries between 2002 to 2005. The cartel covered Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. The investigation followed a tip-off by…
The following press release was issued on the 06.04.2011 by the European Commission. The full text of the press release can be found here. The European Commission has today asked Cyprus to respect EU rules that give nationals from the EU, as well as from Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, the right to buy a second…
The governor of Cyprus` central bank, Athanasios Orphanides, announced that it will create a financial stability fund worth around 500 million euros. Orphanides, a member of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, told the finance committee of parliament, that ‘as an initial target, our aim is to build a fund of around 3.0 percent of…