Where the money stops
Discuss your banking matterWe reply within one business day. Scope and fees are agreed before work starts.
In short
- Disputes with banks, payment institutions, electronic money institutions and online platforms.
- Facility letters, guarantees, mortgages and charges, reviewed before signature rather than after demand.
- Claims where money or cryptocurrency has been taken, run as ordinary Cyprus civil litigation.
Explore the scope of our work
An account is frozen, a payment does not arrive, a transaction appears that nobody authorised, or funds leave a platform and do not come back. Kleanthous & Platis LLC acts for businesses and individuals in disputes with banks, payment institutions, electronic money institutions and online platforms, and in claims against the people and companies that took the money.
This is a disputes and contracts practice. We run Cyprus court proceedings and we review the documents that sit behind the relationship. We do not do licensing work, and the section further down says so plainly, because you should know what you are buying before you instruct us.
The people you will work with
How a matter runs
From review to implementation
Every matter is different, but the route is broadly the same. Knowing it in advance makes the cost and the timetable easier to judge.
First contact and conflict check
Review of the facility, security documents and correspondence with the institution
Engagement and fee agreement before any work begins
Assessment of the position and options, including regulatory exposure
Negotiation with the bank or the regulator
Documentation of the restructuring, settlement or licence application
Implementation and monitoring of the agreed terms
Loan, security and guarantee documents
Most banking disputes are decided by a document signed years earlier. We review and negotiate facility letters and loan agreements, including default, acceleration and set-off clauses; personal and corporate guarantees, and the extent of what a guarantor is signing up to; mortgages, charges over shares and receivables, and assignments; and restructuring and settlement agreements with lenders and credit acquiring companies.
If you are being asked to sign a guarantee, the time to send it to us is before signature, not after demand.
Recovering money and digital assets
Where money or cryptocurrency has been taken, the claim is run as ordinary Cyprus civil litigation. The Cyprus courts can grant interim relief in support of a claim, including orders for disclosure and orders restraining dealings with assets. Whether that relief is realistically available in your case depends on the evidence, on whether the person or company holding the money can be identified and named, and on where the assets sit.
We are direct about this. Tracing funds across exchanges and jurisdictions needs blockchain analysis and foreign law advice. We coordinate that work with technical analysts and foreign lawyers, we do not carry it out ourselves, and it is a real cost that has to be weighed against what is recoverable. If the money has gone somewhere that no Cyprus judgment will reach, we say so at the start rather than after a year of fees.
Disputes with banks and payment providers
We act on:
- accounts frozen, blocked or closed, and requests for the reasons and the underlying file
- unauthorised or disputed transactions, including transfers and card payments
- payments not executed, delayed or sent to the wrong beneficiary
- complaints about how a credit, investment or insurance-linked product was sold
- breach of facility terms: interest applied, charges added, default declared, security enforced
- correspondence and complaints to the provider before proceedings
Some of these matters settle on the strength of a well-evidenced complaint letter and never reach a courtroom. We will tell you which of the two we think you are in.
How to start a first enquiry
Tell us who is involved, so we can run a conflict check, a short outline of what happened and when, and any deadline that is running. That is usually enough for a first view on whether there is a claim worth pursuing. Please do not send the agreement, statements or correspondence until we confirm we can act, then they can come through the right channel.
Where a matter needs a specialist
If your problem is an authorisation application, a licence condition or a supervisory inspection, that is regulatory work and it belongs with a regulatory firm or a licensed compliance consultant. We will say so early, help you frame the question, and work alongside whoever you appoint on the parts that are contractual or contentious.
What we do not do
- We do not prepare or file licensing and authorisation applications.
- We do not build AML, KYC or data protection compliance systems, and we do not sign off on compliance frameworks.
- We do not advise on which jurisdiction to incorporate in, and we do not structure token issues.
- We do not carry out blockchain tracing in house. Where a case needs it, we bring in analysts and foreign counsel and manage that work as part of the claim.
The clock on a bank debt
How long a bank has, and how long you have
The period that applies to a banking claim is not one period, and the differences are worth money to whichever side is counting. They come from the Limitation of Actionable Rights Law, 66(I)/2012.
Six years for the bank products, and expressly not for loans.
Section 8 covers a book debt owed by or to a credit institution, a bill of exchange, cheque or promissory note, and debts arising from hire purchase, the purchase or discounting of receivables, financial leasing, credit card use, overdrafts and anything else presented from time to time as a banking or similar product. The section then excludes loans from its own rule, which is the distinction most often missed when a facility is described loosely in correspondence.
Twelve years where there is a mortgage or a pledge.
Section 5(1) sets that period, and section 5(2) provides that a process of sale of mortgaged immovable property or a pledged thing under any law counts as an action, so the twelve years bind the foreclosure route and not only proceedings.
A loan with no repayment date may not have started running at all.
Under section 7(3), where a loan agreement fixes no specified or ascertainable repayment date and does not require notice as a condition of repayment, time does not begin before a written demand is served on the debtor. A proviso adds that where the borrower gave a mortgage or pledge as security, section 5 applies instead. Borrowers who assume an old facility is spent, and lenders who assume it is safe, are both often wrong for the same reason.
Two rules cut across all of them. Under section 17, time restarts from zero on a written acknowledgement of the debt or on payment of a part exceeding 50% of the total including interest, which is why a part payment offered to buy time is worth thinking about first. And under sections 20 and 21 the court does not take limitation into account of its own motion: it has to be pleaded. The whole scheme is set out in limitation periods in Cyprus, and what happens after judgment in enforcing a judgment.
If an account has been frozen or a payment has gone missing, tell us which bank or payment provider it is and the date it happened, at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or the enquiry form. We reply within one business day.
Frequently asked questions about banking and fintech law in Cyprus
My bank has frozen my account and will not tell me why. What can you do?
We write to the bank setting out the account, the amounts and the effect on your business, and we ask for the reasons and the internal file. Many freezes are resolved at that stage once the bank has the documents it actually wants. If the freeze holds without a proper basis, the next step is a complaint or proceedings, and we will tell you which is proportionate.
Can a Cyprus court freeze the accounts of someone who took my money?
The court can grant interim relief in support of a claim, but not automatically. You need a defendant who can be identified and named, evidence that stands up on affidavit, and assets the order can realistically reach. Where the money has moved offshore or through anonymous accounts, the honest answer is often that the cost of pursuing it exceeds what comes back.
I lost cryptocurrency to an investment platform. Is it worth suing?
Sometimes. It depends on whether the platform or the individuals behind it can be identified and served, whether any assets sit somewhere a Cyprus judgment or a foreign court can reach, and what the tracing will cost. With the transaction records and the correspondence in front of us we can give you a view on prospects before you spend anything on the claim.
Can you review a guarantee before I sign it?
Yes, and this is one of the cheapest pieces of legal work you will ever buy. We look at what is guaranteed, whether liability is capped, what triggers a demand, what happens on default, and whether the security given is what you think it is. A short review before signature is worth more than a defence after demand.
With the agreement, the statements and the correspondence in front of us we can tell you whether you have a claim worth running and what it will realistically cost.
Banking, lending and the money trail
Every page we hold on banks, loans and the source-of-funds questions that come with them.
Written on this subject6
Opening a Bank Account in Cyprus
Account opening in Cyprus is a compliance decision rather than an administrative one. What the bank is actually assessing, and why applications fail.
Opening a Bank Account for a Cyprus Company
What a Cyprus bank asks for when a company opens an account, why applications are refused, and how to prepare the file so it opens in weeks.
Your Bank Sold Your Loan: What It Had to Do First
Selling loans in Cyprus under Law 169(I)/2015: the forty five day right of a borrower to buy their own credit facility, and who may lawfully buy it.
Foreclosure in Cyprus: the notices, and the 45 days to challenge them
The Type I and Type IA notices under Part VIA of Law 9/1965, the eight grounds to set the second aside, the 45 day window, and the court's twelve month deadline.
Loan Restructuring in Cyprus
What a restructuring agreement actually changes in a Cyprus loan, what each concession costs the borrower, and the clauses to settle before signing.
Source of Funds: Why Your Money Is Stuck at the Cyprus Bank
Why a Cyprus bank holds an incoming property payment, what source-of-funds evidence satisfies compliance, and how to prepare the file in advance.
Where this sits in the practice3
Debt Recovery Lawyers in Cyprus
Debt recovery in Cyprus for businesses and individuals: letter before action, court proceedings, enforcement against property and bank accounts.
Restructuring & Insolvency
Company restructuring and insolvency in Cyprus: directors' duties as a company approaches insolvency, creditor claims, liquidation and personal exposure.
Personal Insolvency and Bankruptcy in Cyprus
Personal insolvency in Cyprus: repayment plans, debt relief orders and bankruptcy compared, the protection of the primary residence, and the creditor's side.
A payment or fintech business outside the Union that serves customers in it needs an EU representative under Article 27, and a lender taking Cyprus law security usually needs a process agent.
Related practice areas: Corporate & Commercial and Restructuring & Insolvency.