The Template for Bail-Ins & Cash Bans Was First Implemented in Europe in 2013.

February 22, 2016 in News by RBN

via: Zero Hedge

More and more analysts and commentators have caught to the fact that the Powers That Be are actively preparing for the next financial crisis with even more extreme measures.

 

These measures include:

 

1)   Bank bail-ins

2)   Cash Bans

3)   NIRP

 

As we’ve been noting since 2013, the template for this process was first laid out in Europe, specifically in Cyprus. With that in mind, it’s worth remembering just how it played out there.

 

The quick timeline for what happened in Cyprus is as follows:

 

·      June 25, 2012: Cyprus formally requests a bailout from the EU.

 

·      November 24, 2012: Cyprus announces it has reached an agreement with the EU the bailout process once the troubled Cyprus banks are examined by EU officials (ballpark estimate of capital needed is €17.5 billion).

 

·      February 25, 2013: Democratic Rally candidate Nicos Anastasiades wins Cypriot election defeating his opponent, an anti-austerity Communist.

 

It is at this point that things went into hyper-drive.

 

·      March 16 2013: Cyprus announces the terms of its bail-in: a 6.75% confiscation of accounts under €100,000 and 9.9% for accounts larger than €100,000… a bank holiday is announced.

 

·      March 17 2013: emergency session of Parliament to vote on bailout/bail-in is postponed.

 

·      March 18 2013: Bank holiday extended until March 21 2013.

 

·      March 19 2013: Cyprus parliament rejects bail-in bill.

 

·      March 20 2013: Bank holiday extended until March 26 2013.

 

·      March 24 2013: Cash limits of €100 in withdrawals begin for largest banks in Cyprus.

 

·      March 25 2013: Bail-in deal agreed upon. Those depositors with over €100,000 either lose 40% of their money (Bank of Cyprus) or lose 60% (Laiki).

 

The most important thing I want you to focus on is the speed of these events.

 

Cypriot banks formally requested a bailout back in June 2012. The bailout talks took months to perform. And then the entire system came unhinged in one weekend.

 

One weekend. The process was not gradual. It was sudden and it was total: once it began in earnest, the banks were closed and you couldn’t get your money out (more on this in a moment).

 

There were no warnings that this was coming because everyone at the top of the financial food chain were highly incentivized to keep quiet about this. The Central Banks, the bank CEOs, the politicians… all of these people were focused primarily on maintaining CONFIDENCE in the Cyprus banking system, NOT on fixing the system’s problems.

 

Indeed, the financial elite cannot even openly discuss the system’s problems because it would quickly reveal that they are a primary cause of them.

 

For that reason, you will never and I repeat NEVER see a Central banker, bank CEO, or politician admit openly what is happening in the financial system. Even middle managers and lower level employees won’t talk about it because A) they don’t know the truth concerning their institutions or B) they could be fired for warning others.

 

Moreover, even award winning institutions are at risk. Consider that the Bank of Cyprus, the bank that imploded in 2013 and STOLE clients’ funds was voted Best Bank for Private Banking in Cyprus by EUROMONEY magazine in 2012.

 

No joke…

 

Bank of Cyprus has been named as the Best Bank for Private Banking in Cyprus, by the internationally acclaimed magazine EUROMONEY

 

Bank of Cyprus Private Banking ranked first among Cypriot, Greek and other international financial institutions operating in Cyprus in the Private Banking sector…

 

This recognition by EUROMONEY is ever more important in today’s macroeconomic environment as it reaffirms the Bank’s ability to safely and successfully respond to its clients’ financial needs and emphasizes its clients’ loyalty and trust.

 

Source: Euromoney.

So do not expect to EVER hear a Central Banker, politician, banker, regulator or anyone else in a position of power warn you of the real risks to your wealth. Indeed, as Cyprus has now SHOWN us, the only people who WILL be warned are the elite’s cronies:

 

One hundred and thirty-two companies reportedly had inside knowledge of Cyprus’ impending levy tax as they withdrew deposits worth US$916 million in the run-up to the bailout deal.

 

The companies withdrew their savings in the two-week period (between March 1 to March 15) leading up to the rescue deal that enforced heavy losses on wealthy depositors in Cypriot banks, according to Greek newspaper Proto Thema.

 

Shortly after this the EU ministers and the IMF hammered out a 10-billion-euro (US$13 billion) bailout agreement with Cyprus, which included a one-time tax on deposits held in Cypriot banks.

 

In the meantime all banks in Cyprus temporarily froze the amounts required to pay the tax on their clients’ deposits and stopped all transactions while the government negotiated the details of the agreement.

 

The companies on the list withdrew their deposits in euro, USD, GBP and Russian rubles and later transferred to banks outside of Cyprus. The total amount withdrawn comes to US$916 million.

Source: RT

How about that? The insiders were able to get nearly $1 billion out of the banks while ordinary savers’ deposits were frozen.

Please take a few minutes to digest what I’m telling you here. You will not be warned of the risks to your wealth by anyone in a position of power in the political financial hierarchy.

With that in mind, now is a good time to prepare for systemic risk. I cannot forecast precisely when things will get as ugly as they did in Cyprus for the financial system as a whole (no one can).

This is just the start of a much larger strategy of declaring War on Cash.  The goal is to stop people from being able to move their money into physical cash and to keep their wealth in the financial system at all costs.

Indeed, we’ve uncovered a secret document outlining how the Fed plans to incinerate savings to force investors away from cash and into riskier assets.