The Central Bank of Cyprus (‘CBC’) on Friday released a statement informing the public, businesses and depositors that an entity under the name ‘Turkish International Investment Bank’, to which reference is made on a website, is not licenced by the CBC to operate as a credit institution.

In addition, the entity is not licensed to operate as a Representative Office of a credit institution in the Republic of Cyprus, in accordance with the provisions of the Business of Credit Institutions Laws.

For this entity, the CBC said, previous referrals were made to Cypriot police, which resulted in the deletion of the entity’s website as it was found to be illegal.

“The CBC urges the public, businesses and depositors, before conducting business with credit institutions or Representative Offices of credit institutions which are unknown to the general public, to consult its website,” the central bank said.

Specifically, the CBC urged the public to check the Register of Credit Institutions operating in Cyprus, as well as the Register of Representative Offices in the Republic of Cyprus (Central Bank of Cyprus – Establishment of Representative Offices in Cyprus by banks established in other countries), in order to ascertain the credit institutions and the Representative Offices that are operating legally in the Republic of Cyprus.