In a statement, the International Monetary Fund said last Monday it completed the first review of its bailout program for Cyprus. This would mean the approval of the release of USD113 million to the stricken country.

With the latest release, the Fund calculated the total disbursements to be at USD226 million from the total USD1.3 billion for its loan program to Cyprus. This is part of a much larger IMF facility worth EUR10 billion or USD13 billion three year bailout program with the European Stability Mechanism for the island-nation.

Cyprus was one of the most hardly hit countries during the Eurozone debt crisis. Most of the brunt was sustained in its banking sector, as it had very close financial links to the troubled economy of neighbor Greece.

Part of the provisions required for the EUR10 billion aid package, Cyprus was required to shut down one of its largest banks and the bank deposits it had kept for clients utilized to recapitalize the bank. This process, called bail-in resulted in a diminution of the deposits with the bank held in trust for its depositor-clients.