NICOSIA: Cyprus is to impose unprecedented money controls to avert a run on the island's shuttered banks when they reopen following a controversial international bailout, reports said on Wednesday.
Newspapers said the temporary restrictions, in place for seven days, included bans on taking more than 3,000 euros ($3,900) of cash out of Mediterranean island and on cashing cheques.
Major protests were planned later Wednesday and homes and businesses awaited final confirmation that Cypriot banks, which have been locked down for 12 days, would reopen on Thursday as promised.
Turmoil deepened with the sacking of the chief executive of the troubled Bank of Cyprus by the governor of the central bank, reportedly on the orders of the international lenders behind the deal.
Shockwaves from the crisis also hit the euro, as an agreement which was meant to have stopped contagion instead made other debt-hit members fear that they could face terms as harsh as Cyprus.
The European single currency fell under $1.28 for the first time since November due to uncertainty over Cyprus and European stock markets slumped.
The cash curbs following Monday's 10-billion-euro ($13-billion) EU-IMF bailout agreement would be far harsher than in any of the other eurozone countries that have had similar rescue packages.
Cypriot banks have been closed since March 16, despite the agreement that saved the island from bankruptcy and a possible euro exit, as officials feared that depositors would empty their accounts and send the cash abroad.
Central Bank spokeswoman Aliki Sylianou told the state broadcaster that "indications are that banks will open tomorrow with some restrictions" but left room for doubt.
There was no official confirmation of the capital controls, but the websites of the Phileleftheros and Katherimini newspapers printed a photocopy of what appeared to be a draft of them.
The restrictions put a 3,000 euro ceiling on cash taken abroad by travellers, with customs officials allowed to check at the border, the reports said.
Non-cash payments or money transfers outside Cyprus are prohibited, with some narrowly-defined exceptions, and credit card purchases while abroad are limited to to 5,000 euros a month.
Cypriots will also be banned from cashing cheques, although they will be allowed to deposit them in their accounts.
The controls add to the pain of a bailout deal that has scythed through Cyprus's bloated banking sector and delivered a major hit to big depositors, including many Russians attracted by its near-tax haven status.
The bailout involves the restructuring of the Bank of Cyprus, the country's biggest lender, and the eventual winding down of Laiki, or Popular Bank, the number two bank.
That process claimed the job of Bank of Cyprus chief executive Yiannis Kypri on Wednesday just a day after the bank's chairman had his resignation rejected.
State media said under-fire Central Bank Governor Panicos Demetriades forced out Kypri, 62, on the instructions of the "troika" of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The communist Akel party was due to stage a major demonstration outside the presidential palace late Wednesday against the bailout.
Akel's Demetris Christofias was president for five years until conservative Nikos Anastasiades was elected last month, and it was he who first sought a bailout in June, before balking at tough terms proposed by the troika.
Finance Minister Michalis Sarris meanwhile said Laiki depositors faced losses of up to 80 percent on deposits over 100,000 euros. Bank of Cyprus savers have already been warned they stand to lose 40 percent.
Many Cypriots feel their country was unfairly treated compared to the other euro nations that have been bailed out: Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.
Comments by Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Monday which were interpreted as suggesting actions in Cyprus could act as a template for future bailouts also continued to cause worries.
Luxembourg said it was "concerned" about what it fears is a new eurozone position that oversized finance sectors must be scaled back.
Slovenia's newly appointed Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek meanwhile dismissed Wednesday claims that the country might follow Cyprus in needing a bailout.
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