Hours before the deadline to save Cyprus’s banks, the country reached a bailout agreement with the European Union. The plan protects deposits under €100,000 but freezes accounts over that threshold—many of which belong to wealthy Russians using the island nation as a tax haven—and uses them to pay off the country’s debts. Smaller deposits will be shifted to the Bank of Cyprus, while the Popular Bank of Cyprus will be shut down. It’s not clear how harsh the tax on large accounts will be, but it’s supposed to raise €4.2 billion.
