Cyprus lawmakers are currently discussing a bill in parliament that will reveal the names of all CBI citizens who obtained citizenship under naturalization by investment scheme.
The bill known as Perdikis bill was tabled in parliament, aims to amend the law to publish names of all CBI citizens in a gazette, to boost the transparency of the Cyprus investment scheme. The Bill already voted down last year.
As of May 2018, EU implement stronger rules on GDPR data protection which means people have more control over their personal data and businesses benefit from a level playing field.
The Data protection commissioner for Cyprus Irini Loizidou Nicolaidou said on Monday she is opposed to a blanket publication of the names of foreign nationals who acquired citizenship under investment scheme, in the name of transparency
Cyprus currently do not publish names of investor citizens to public giving rich investors privacy, but Malta and Dominica publish names of CBI citizens in Gazette every year.
Cyprus under pressure from EU commission introduced significant measures in May 2019, tightening the scheme, which includes requirement of schengen visa, increasing real estate investment to €2.5m, holding period and removing Govt bonds etc. Another measure implemented was applicants subjected to Enhanced due diligence checks (EDD) and Cyprus will be spending 1.4m euros annually for these checks.
As a result of implementation of new rules, there has been reports of decline in property sales by 6.6% and investors applying for CBI schemes. Limassol and Famagusta facing the biggest crunch. In Limassol, sales dropped by 19.2% in June to September compared to last year, while sales in Famagusta declined by 25.3%.
The IMF recently warned Cyprus, the new rules tightening the citizenship scheme could hit passport sales, and high dependence on Citizenship-by-Investment (CbI) financed investments could pose risks for its sustainability.
The Cyprus investment scheme is limited 700 applications every year. According to a Finance ministry report, from 1 June 2013 to 15 August 2018, the study reported 1,864 foreign investors granted citizenship and €6.6 billion total investments received with each investor investing €2 million euros or more. As of today some 2000 investors have been granted Cyprus passports.
With Greece is working on a new citizenship by investment scheme to compete with Cyprus for the passport market in 2020, there have been fears that further tightening of rules, would only make things worse for Cyprus in attracting citizenship investors. Greece has far powerful passport than Cyprus and there is already significant interest among rich investors.
