[ww520]

This is highway robbery. It reneges on the contractual agreement between the depositors and the banks to get the full deposit back. If they impose a 10% levy on the new deposits, then fine. They are levying on existing deposits retroactively. That's simply robbery.

Just because the money is from foreigners doesn't make it right. EU banking will have not credibility after this.

This will discourage people to put money in the banks and encourage them to keep them at home.

[vellum]

>Just because the money is from foreigners doesn't make it right.

Well, the locals got screwed, too. Here's some good analysis: http://bit.ly/110JLpm He speculates that they could have taxed the foreigners (Russians) @ 30%, but that would have finished off Cyprus as a destination for foreign money. Instead, they taxed everyone at 10%. The Russians might see 10% as the cost of doing business.