Cyprus Business Now: tourism, housing, banks, Freedom24, maritime

Cyprus’ hotel sector is hoping to limit its losses for 2026 to around 10 per cent, after a difficult spring was followed by more encouraging bookings in July and August, the director-general of the Cyprus Hotel Association (Pasyxe) Christos Angelides said on Wednesday. “After the major difficulties experienced in March, April and May, with losses of around 30 per cent for the period and cancellations for the rest of the season, it appears that the efforts made by the private sector, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism and all the parties involved, such as ACTTA, Hermes and their members, have borne fruit,” Angelides told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA). “We recovered a significant amount of the lost ground in June,” he stated, adding that July and August had performed at satisfactory levels given the large number of cancellations that had preceded them. Angelides said the performance was particularly encouraging because 2025 had been a historic year for the hotel industry, with almost all hotels operating at full capacity. More planning and building permit applications were cleared than filed in Larnaca in July, allowing the district authority to work through older cases while keeping pace with new demand. The Larnaca district local government organisation (EOA) said its results were the best in Cyprus for Category I planning and building permits during the month. It completed 267 Category I planning permits, compared with 256 new applications, giving it a processing rate of 104 per cent. The gap was wider for Category I building permits, with 420 cases completed against 339 received. This produced a processing rate of 124 per cent. Larnaca also stayed ahead of incoming applications in Category II planning permits, completing 142 cases while receiving 133, for a rate of 107 per cent. However, the picture was weaker for Category II building permits, where 114 cases were completed and 138 were submitted, leaving the rate at 83 per cent. Financial technology and stockbrokerage company Freedom24 is exploring the possibility of establishing a presence in Geneva as the European financial technology firm considers Switzerland a market of long-term strategic interest, the company said on Wednesday. The assessment will examine opportunities across wealth management, digital financial infrastructure, responsible artificial intelligence and data governance, areas where Switzerland’s established expertise overlaps with capabilities already developed by the company. Freedom24 is a division of Freedom Holding Corp and provides investment and financial technology services to European clients. Among the options being considered are business models that would combine the relationship-driven approach associated with Swiss wealth management with proprietary technology developed across the wider Freedom Group. Limassol’s seafront will become an open-air gateway to the world of shipping on October 10, as the Thalassa festival returns with a full day of interactive activities aimed particularly at children and young people. The fifth “Thalassa 2026” festival, jointly organised by the Shipping Deputy Ministry and Limassol municipality, will take place from 9am until 7pm at the Limassol Multifunctional Seaside Park, along the Molos promenade. Held under the central message “Experience the sea – Get to know Shipping”, the festival is designed to bring the public closer to the sea and the maritime sector through creative, educational and hands-on experiences. According to the organisers, particular emphasis will be placed on giving children and young people an enjoyable introduction to the many different aspects of shipping, while encouraging a broader maritime and environmental culture among the public. The festival also seeks to present the sea not only as a place for leisure and sport, but as a source of education, employment and economic activity. Visitors will be able to explore the contribution of shipping and the blue economy, as well as the study and career opportunities available across the maritime sector. Alpha Bank Cyprus has won two awards at the 2026 World’s Best Digital Bank Awards, recognising its mobile banking application and integrated consumer banking website. The bank was named Cyprus winner in the Best Mobile Banking App and Best Integrated Consumer Banking Site categories at the awards organised by international financial magazine Global Finance. The awards are being held for the 27th year and recognise banks based on the development and quality of their digital services and customer experience. The Best Mobile Banking App award recognises Alpha 360 Mobile, which is at the centre of Alpha Bank Cyprus’s digital banking offering. Cyprus banks reported stable lending standards and stronger household demand for credit during the second quarter of 2026, while uncertainty surrounding the Middle East crisis weighed on some business investment plans, according to the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC). Credit standards for loans to enterprises and for household borrowing, including housing loans and consumer credit, remained unchanged in 2026Q2 compared with the previous quarter. The survey found that all factors affecting credit standards across the different loan categories had a neutral impact during the quarter. Banks had previously expected some tightening of lending standards, but those expectations were not realised. For businesses, lending standards remained unchanged for both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large companies, continuing at the relatively tight levels seen since the second quarter of 2024. Eurobank has raised €600 million through a seven-year green senior preferred bond, with the final order book reaching about €1.4 billion as international investors showed strong demand for the issue, the bank confirmed on Wednesday. As first reported yesterday, the level of demand allowed Eurobank to price the transaction at a credit spread of 98 basis points, significantly below the initial indication of 125 basis points. The new fixed-rate green senior preferred notes carry a 4.125 per cent annual coupon and mature on September 8, 2033. The notes can be called at par by Eurobank on September 8, 2032, while settlement is scheduled for September 8, 2026. The securities will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Euro MTF market. Eurobank will issue more than 6.55 million new ordinary voting shares following the exercise of stock options by 231 members of its management and staff, with the new shares set to be admitted to trading on Euronext Athens. In an announcement, the bank said that the stock options were exercised between July 23 and August 3 by all 231 beneficiaries who participated in the relevant tranches of its eighth stock option plan. The options relate to the second, third, fourth and fifth series of the plan, which was originally established in 2020 and subsequently continued by Eurobank following the absorption of Eurobank Ergasias Services and Holdings in December 2025. The scheme is intended to attract and retain management and staff while linking part of their remuneration to the bank’s long-term performance through an ownership interest in Eurobank. Cyprus had one of the lowest shares of internet users paying for film, series or sports streaming services in the EU in 2025, according to Eurostat data. Some 26.97 per cent of internet users in Cyprus had paid for such a subscription during the reference period, well below the EU average of 32.68 per cent. The figure placed Cyprus 20th among the 27 EU member states, with only Estonia, Portugal, Croatia, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria recording lower rates. Ireland had by far the highest share, at 63.94 per cent, followed by Denmark at 61.11 per cent and the Netherlands at 59.23 per cent. Cyprus also lagged several other European markets, including Greece, where 40.18 per cent of internet users paid for film, series or sports streaming services, and Malta, at 33.07 per cent. Cyprus and Greece have established their first quantum-secure satellite data connection, Sparkle and Hellas Sat announced on Wednesday, in a development aimed at protecting communications against future cyber threats. The connection links Sparkle’s data centre in Metamorfosi, Athens, with Hellas Sat infrastructure in Cyprus, following earlier successful testing of a secure IPsec connection between two data centres in Greece. The latest trial extends that protection to a live satellite connection between the two countries, with data travelling approximately 72,000 kilometres through the satellite system, including the uplink from Cyprus to the satellite and the subsequent downlink to Greece. The companies described it as the first time this type of quantum protection has been applied to a satellite connection between Greece and Cyprus.