I was thinking about what else to write about Cyprus when the topic presented itself—we had to open a bank account for my daughter.
When I first came to Cyprus, everything was new to me. I didn’t know any Greek at all, but the similarity of the alphabets allowed me to at least try reading Greek signs. I remember the very first word I noticed was “Τράπεζα,” which I kept seeing everywhere. It’s pronounced exactly like the Russian word “трапеза” (meaning “meal”), but in Greek, it means “bank.” And since banks are everywhere in Cyprus, the word was hard to miss.
The first time I had to open an account, the company I worked for helped me. That’s a common practice in Cypriot companies that bring in employees from other countries. Back then, the process was pretty quick—everything was prepared for me, and all I had to do was sign where they pointed. Then it was straight to work, with my salary deposited into the account on the last working day of each month.
Later, when I had to handle various bank-related matters on my own, I began to learn the intricacies of the process firsthand.
Read more
