CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Marcos Georgiades, Dominique Pelides and Panayiota Elia, Georgiades & Pelides
Management Body The Governance Directives require that, inter alia: • the size and composition of the management body must take into account the size and complexity of the bank and the nature and scope of its activities, ensuring that: (a) there are at least seven and no more than 13 members; (b) at least 50% of the members of the man - agement body (rounded down) plus one member are independent; (c) there are at least two executive mem - bers, representing not more than 25% of the members of the management body (rounded down), one of whom must be the chief executive officer; (d) the management body (i) is sufficiently diverse in age, gender and educational and professional background to reflect an adequately broad range of experience and facilitate a variety of independent opinions and critical challenge, and (ii) possesses adequate collective knowl - edge, skills and experience to be able to understand the bank’s activities, including the main risks; and • the management body must have commit - tees of the appropriate size, composition, structure and responsibilities for the effective discharge of its roles and responsibilities; and • specifically with respect to diversity, the bank should put in place a policy promoting diver - sity on the management body (which includes a target as to representation of the underrep - resented gender), and should more broadly ensure that there is no discrimination on the basis of gender, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic characteristics, language, religion or belief, membership of a national
minority, birth, disability, age or sexual orien - tation. Senior Management Senior managers must be sufficient in number and have the necessary know-how to manage the bank’s operations. Banking Secrecy Under the Banking Law, members of the man - agement body, chief executives, managers, officers, employees and agents of a bank – as well as persons who have access to the records of a bank by any means – are prohibited from providing, communicating, revealing or using for their own benefit any information whatsoever regarding the account of any particular customer of the bank, either during their employment or professional relationship with the bank or after its termination. This obligation is subject to a number of exceptions. 4.2 Registration and Oversight of Senior Management Assessment Procedure and Criteria The procedure and criteria that banks should take into account in assessing the fitness of candidates for the management body and key function holders are set out in the Fitness Direc - tive, which requires that the assessment of the fitness of members of the management body and key function holders is carried out before their appointment. In particular, a bank must assess whether the candidate: • has a good reputation; • has sufficient knowledge, skills and experi - ence; • can act with honesty, integrity and independ - ence; and
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