page_title: Economy of Cyprus
section_title: Role as a financial hub
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Cyprus / Role as a financial hub
caption_attribution_description: English: Bank of Cyprus huge offices in Aglandjia suburb of Nicosia Republic of Cyprus
context_page_description: The economy of Cyprus is a high-income economy as classified by the World Bank, and was included by the International Monetary Fund in its list of advanced economies in 2001. Erratic growth rates in the 1990s reflected the economy's vulnerability to swings in tourist arrivals, caused by political instability on the island and fluctuations in economic conditions in Western Europe.
  Cyprus adopted the euro as its official currency on 1 January 2008, replacing the Cypriot pound at an irrevocable fixed exchange rate of CYP 0.585274 per EUR 1.00.
  The 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis, part of the wider European debt crisis, has dominated the country's economic affairs in recent times. In March 2013, the Cypriot government reached an agreement with its eurozone partners to split the country's second biggest bank, the Cyprus Popular Bank, into a "bad" bank which would be wound down over time and a "good" bank which would be absorbed by the larger Bank of Cyprus.
context_section_description: In the years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union it gained great popularity as a portal for investment from the West into Russia and Eastern Europe, becoming for companies of that origin the most common tax haven. More recently, there have been increasing investment flows from the West through Cyprus into Asia, particularly China and India, South America and the Middle East. In addition, businesses from outside the EU use Cyprus as their entry-point for investment into Europe. The business services sector remains the fastest growing sector of the economy, and had overtaken all other sectors in importance. CIPA has been fundamental towards this trend. As of 2016, CySEC (the Financial Regulator), regulates many of the world's biggest brands in retail forex as they generally see it as an efficient way to get an EU operating license and industry know-how.
caption: Bank of Cyprus offices in Aglandjia, Nicosia.
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