NICOSIA The president of Cyprus assured his people a bailout deal he struck with the European Union was in their best interests, but banks will remain closed until Thursday - and even then subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits. 
 
 Returned from fraught negotiations in Brussels, President Nicos Anastasiades said late on Monday the 10-billion euro ($13 billion) rescue plan agreed there in the early hours of the morning was "painful" but essential to avoid economic meltdown. 
 
 He agreed to close down the second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular, and inflict heavy losses on big depositors, many of them Russian, after Cyprus's outsize financial sector ran into trouble when its investments in neighboring Greece went sour. 
 
 European leaders said a chaotic national bankruptcy that might have forced Cyprus from the euro and upset Europe's economy was averted - though investors in other European banks are alarmed by the precedent of losses for depositors in Cyprus. 
 
 "The agreement we reached is difficult but, under the circumstances, the best that we could achieve," Anastasiades said in a televised address to the nation on Monday evening. 
 
 "We leave behind the uncertainty and anxiety that we all lived through over the last few months and we look forward now to the future with optimism," he told compatriots who face an immediate, deep recession and years of hardship unlikely to be milder than those experienced by Irish, Greeks and Portuguese. 
 
 Many Cypriots say they felt anything but reassured by the bailout deal, however, and are expected to besiege banks as soon as they reopen after a shutdown that began over a week ago. 
 
 Reversing a previous decision to start reopening at least some banks on Tuesday, the central bank said late on Monday that they would all now stay shut until Thursday to ensure the "smooth functioning of the whole banking system". 
 
 Little is known about the restrictions on transactions that Anastasiades said the central bank would impose, but he told Cypriots: "I want to assure you that this will be a very temporary measure that will gradually be relaxed." 
 
 Capital controls, preventing people moving funds out of the country, are at odds with the European Union's ideals of a common market but the government may fear an ebb tide of panic that would cause even more disruption to the local economy. 
 
 Without an agreement by the end of Monday, Cyprus had faced certain banking collapse and risked becoming the first country to be pushed out of the European single currency - a fate that Germany and other northern creditors seemed willing to inflict on a nation that accounts for just a tiny fraction of the euro economy and whose banks they felt had overreached themselves. 
 
 Backed by euro zone finance ministers, the plan will wind down the largely state-owned Cyprus Popular Bank, known as Laiki, and shift deposits under 100,000 euros to the Bank of Cyprus to create a "good bank", leaving problems behind in, effectively, a "bad bank". 
 
 Deposits above 100,000 euros in both banks, which are not guaranteed by the state under EU law, will be frozen and used to resolve Laiki's debts and recapitalize the Bank of Cyprus, the island's biggest, through a deposit/equity conversion. 
 
 PRECEDENT SET 
 
 The raid on uninsured Laiki depositors is expected to raise 4.2 billion euros of the 5.8 billion euros the EU and IMF had told Cyprus to raise as a contribution to the bailout, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said. 
 
 Cyprus government spokesman Christos Stylianides said losses for uninsured depositors would be "under or around 30 percent". 
 
 Laiki will effectively be shuttered, with thousands of job losses. Officials said senior bondholders in Laiki would be wiped out and those in Bank of Cyprus would have to make a contribution - setting a precedent for the euro zone. 
 
 Comments by Dijsselbloem on the need for lenders to banks to accept the potential risks of their failure had a knock-on effect in the euro zone, raising the cost of insuring holdings of bonds issued by other banks, notably in Italy and Spain. 
 
 Global equity markets and the euro retreated on his comment that the Cyprus bailout could be a template for solving other problems, by shifting more risk to depositors and stakeholders: 
 
 "What we've done last night is what I call pushing back the risks," Dijsselbloem, who heads the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, told Reuters and the Financial Times. 
 
 A first attempt at a deal 10 days ago had collapsed when the Cypriot parliament rejected a proposed levy on all deposits, large and small. That proposal outraged ordinary Cypriots, leading to queues at bank cash machines. 
 
 The central bank has imposed a 100-euro daily limit on withdrawals from ATMs at the two biggest banks to avert a run. 
 
 PUBLIC SCEPTICAL 
 
 Russia signaled it would back the bailout even though it would impose big losses on Russian depositors, who by some estimates may hold a third of all deposits in Cypriot banks. 
 
 President Vladimir Putin ordered officials to restructure a loan Moscow granted to Cyprus in 2011 - having rejected Nicosia's request for easier terms in crisis talks last week. 
 
 Among Cypriots sipping coffee in warm sunshine, there was a mood of wariness about the deal: "How long will it last?" asked Georgia Xenophontos, 23, a hotel receptionist in Nicosia. 
 
 "Why should anyone believe anything this government says?" 
 
 In the morning, a public holiday, residents of the capital lined the streets to watch a parade by soldiers and students to mark Greek Independence Day, waving the Greek and Cypriot flags. 
 
 "On this day I'm proud to be Greek, but at the same time I feel humiliated," said Marios Charalambous, 56, a print-shop owner. "I'm worried what will happen when the banks reopen." 
 
 Cyprus' tottering banks held 68 billion euros in deposits, including 38 billion in accounts of more than 100,000 euros - enormous sums for an nation of 860,000 people that could never sustain such a big financial system on its own. 
 
 The U.S. Treasury, noting the importance to the United States of financial stability in Europe, its largest trading partner, said it was now up to Cypriots to rebuild their economy: "It is critical to lay the foundation for a return to financial stability and growth in Cyprus," the Treasury said. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Luke Baker, John O'Donnell, Robin Emmott, Philip Blenkinsop and Rex Merrifield in Brussels, Costas Pitas in Nicosia and Lionel Laurent in Paris; Writing by Giles Elgood and Matt Robinson; Editing by Alastair Macdonald) ||||| Media caption President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades: "A difficult fight but we leave behind uncertainty and look with optimism into the future" 
 
 All Cypriot banks will remain closed until Thursday, the central bank now says, and temporary measures will be placed on transactions when they reopen despite an EU/IMF bailout deal. 
 
 Earlier, the authorities said all but the biggest two would open on Tuesday. 
 
 The central bank now says all will remain closed to ensure the whole banking system functions "smoothly". 
 
 The bailout deal will see larger depositors in the two biggest banks, Bank of Cyprus and Laiki, lose money. 
 
 President Nicos Anastasiades said "very temporary restrictions" would be put on capital flows, but gave no details. 
 
 Controls to prevent money leaving the country are already in place. 
 
 Certain limits on the size of cash withdrawals are expected to continue. 
 
 '30% losses' 
 
 Banks have not been open since 15 March. Their reopening had been expected after Cyprus agreed a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) that releases 10bn euros in support. 
 
 It was conditional on Cyprus itself raising 5.8bn euros, most of which looks likely to come from depositors with more than 100,000 euros (£85,000) in Bank of Cyprus and Laiki or Popular Bank. 
 
 The bailout and rescue of Cyprus by the eurozone and IMF will not feel like much of a rescue to its people, who face economic misery 
 
 The banks remained closed after the country's first money-raising solution, which would have hit smaller deposit holders as well as larger holdings, was rejected by parliament. 
 
 The new deal for Cyprus, unlike previous agreements, does not require parliamentary approval. It will also include austerity measures and tax increases. 
 
 Laiki will be shut down, and deposits under 100,000 euros, which are guaranteed by the state under EU law, will move into the Bank of Cyprus to create a "good bank". 
 
 Deposits above that insured amount will be frozen and used to pay Laiki's debts and recapitalise the Bank of Cyprus, with depositor losses eventually converted into shares. 
 
 Major depositors, many of whom are wealthy Russians, will not be able to access accounts exceeding the 100,000-euro limit until the restructuring of the banks is complete. 
 
 A government spokesman said the losses on uninsured depositors would be "under or around 30%". 
 
 'Specific case' 
 
 On Monday morning, hopes that the deal would solve the crisis lifted shares. 
 
 But later, stock markets were rocked after the head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers suggested that the deal for Cyprus could form a template for resolving future eurozone banking problems. 
 
 Jeroen Dijsselbloem Aged 46, member of Dutch Labour party 
 
 Became Netherlands finance minister four months ago and took over as chair of Eurogroup in January 
 
 Criticised by predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker and MEPs over initial terms of Cyprus bailout 
 
 No previous experience in finance but studied agricultural economics and business 
 
 Favours reform of the financial sector and a Europe where 'every country brings its budget in order' Jeroen Dijsselbloem 
 
 Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who as head of the Eurogroup played a key role in the Cyprus negotiations, told Reuters and the Financial Times: "If there is a risk in a bank our first question should be 'OK, what are you in the bank going to do about that?'" 
 
 He later added a clarification, saying that Cyprus was "a specific case with exceptional challenges". 
 
 Mr Dijsselbloem said the pattern for bank rescues should see shareholders take the first hit, then bondholders, who lend money through financial markets, and only then should depositors with large bank balances be tapped. 
 
 The Cyprus deal puts the burden for dealing with problem banks on their shareholders and creditors - in this particular case, customers with large bank balances - rather than the government and taxpayers, or bondholders. 
 
 The BBC's Andrew Walker points out that the more common approach to failing banks in the current crisis has been for the state to inject new capital. 
 
 He says Cyprus' banks are unusual in that they have relatively few financial market investors who could be tapped. 
 
 In the past, nations such as Ireland have pumped billions of taxpayers' money into propping up their banks, rather than risk upsetting large investors and spooking the financial system. 
 
 Despite the Cypriot economy's relatively small size, many analysts had been concerned that the crisis would spread to the wider eurozone, had Cyprus been forced to give up the single currency. 
 
 There were fears that the country's possible exit from the euro would trigger a loss of confidence across the single currency bloc, and prompt investors to withdraw from other troubled economies, such as Greece. 
 
 However, while Cyprus is now likely to remain in the eurozone, the country still faces significant obstacles as it attempts to recover from the crisis. ||||| NICOSIA, March 26 (Reuters) - Andreas Artemis, the chairman of Cyprus’s biggest commerical bank, the Bank of Cyprus , has submitted his resignation, a source at the bank said on Tuesday. 
 
 “He sent a resignation letter this morning which will be examined by the Board of Directors convening this afternoon,” the bank source said, requesting anonymity. ||||| A TV channel employee watch the Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades speaks during a live, televised address to the nation from the Presidential Palace in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, March 25,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Cyprus ordered banks to remain closed for two more days over fears of a run by customers trying to get their money out, after striking a pre-dawn bailout deal Monday that averted the country's imminent bankruptcy. 
 
 The sudden midnight postponement of the much anticipated Tuesday bank opening by all but the country's two largest lenders was sure to hammer businesses already reeling from more than a week of no access to their deposits. 
 
 ATMs have been dispensing cash but often run out, and an increasing number of stores and other businesses have stopped accepting credit or debit cards. The two largest lenders, the struggling Laiki and Bank of Cyprus, have imposed a daily withdrawal limit of 100 euros ($130). 
 
 Cyprus clinched an eleventh-hour deal with the 17-nation eurozone and the International Monetary Fund early Monday for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout. Without it, the country's banks would have collapsed, dragging down the economy and potentially pushing it out of the euro. 
 
 Under the deal, the country agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on large depositors in troubled banks. 
 
 The country's banks have been closed since March 16 to avert a run on deposits as the country's politicians struggled to come up with a way to raise enough money to qualify for the bailout. An initial plan that would have raised 5.8 billion euros by seizing up to 10 percent of people's bank accounts enraged depositors and was soundly rejected by lawmakers early last week. 
 
 But with the immediate crisis averted, worry spread across Europe that the deal could boomerang, spooking investors and hurting the eurozone's efforts to keep its debt crisis from spreading. 
 
 "The Cypriot bailout has a powerful legacy which may alter the security with which depositors elsewhere in the eurozone view the safety of banks," said Jane Foley, an analyst at Rabobank International. 
 
 The initial plan to seize a percentage of all deposits sent jitters across the eurozone. European officials, anxious to prevent any further spread of the financial crisis that has already left Greece, Ireland and Portugal dependent on bailout funds, had been at pains to point out that Cyprus was a unique case. 
 
 The country of about 800,000 people has a banking sector eight times larger than its gross domestic product, with nearly a third of the roughly 68 billion euros in the country's banks believed to be held by Russians. Germany in particular long insisted that Cypriot banks, which attracted foreign investors with high interest rates, needed to contribute to the bailout. 
 
 Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the Eurogroup gathering of the eurozone's finance ministers, said Monday that inflicting losses on the banks' shareholders, bondholders and large depositors should become the eurozone's default approach for dealing with ailing lenders. 
 
 "If I finance a bank and I know if the bank will get in trouble I will be hit and I will lose money, I will put a price on that," Dijsselbloem said in a joint interview with the Financial Times and Reuters. "I think it is a sound economic principle. And having cheap money because the risk will be covered by the government, and I will always get my money back, is not leading to the right decisions in the financial sector." 
 
 However, forcing losses on large deposits could encourage investors to pull money out of weaker southern European economies to more stable nations in the north, like Germany. 
 
 That concern was evident in markets. The euro currency, used by more than 330 million Europeans, initially rose against the dollar to about $1.30 on news of the bailout agreement, but tanked below $1.29 _ its lowest level since November _ following Dijsselbloem's remarks. European stock market indexes also lost their earlier gains, with bank shares hardest-hit, particularly in financially weak countries like Italy and Spain. 
 
 On Wall Street, stocks reversed an early rise as traders returned to worrying about the eurozone, and the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.4 percent. 
 
 After a whirlwind of nervous market reactions, Dijsselbloem issued a terse clarifying statement, saying Cyprus was "a specific case with exceptional challenges which required the bail-in measures." 
 
 "Macro-economic adjustment programs are tailor-made to the situation of the country concerned and no models or templates are used," he added. 
 
 Under the new Cyprus bailout plan, the bulk of the funds will be raised by forcing losses on accounts of more than 100,000 euros in the country's second- largest lender, Laiki, and its top lender, Bank of Cyprus, with the remainder coming from tax increases and privatizations. 
 
 People and businesses with more than 100,000 euros in their accounts at Laiki face significant losses. The bank will be dissolved immediately into a so-called bad bank containing its uninsured deposits and toxic assets, with the guaranteed deposits being transferred to the Bank of Cyprus. 
 
 Deposits at Bank of Cyprus above 100,000 euros will be frozen until it becomes clear whether or to what extent they will also be forced to take losses. Those funds will eventually be converted into bank shares. 
 
 It's not yet clear how severe the losses will be to Laiki's large bank deposit holders, but the euro finance ministers noted that the restructuring is expected to yield 4.2 billion euros ($5.4 billion) overall. Analysts have estimated investors might lose up to 40 percent of their money. 
 
 Speaking about the marathon 10-hour negotiations in Brussels that resulted in the deal, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said "the hours were difficult, at some moments dramatic. Cyprus found itself a breath away from economic collapse." 
 
 The agreement, he said, "is painful, but under the circumstances the best we could have ensured. The danger of Cyprus' bankruptcy is definitively overcome and the tragic consequences for the economy and society are averted." 
 
 ____ 
 
 Juergen Baetz in Brussels contributed to this story. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Paul Mason: "Every figure in this document has the word 'euro' and two x's" 
 
 Cyprus finance ministers are planning to impose a weekly limit on cash withdrawals, the BBC has learned. 
 
 The country's draft capital controls include export limits on euros and a ban on cashing cheques, says Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason. 
 
 In addition, fixed-term deposits will have to be held until maturity. 
 
 Cyprus's finance minister earlier confirmed that depositors with more than 100,000 euros could see 40% of their funds converted into bank shares. 
 
 But Michalis Sarris also said that Cypriot depositors with less than 100,000 euros in their accounts "will not be hit". 
 
 "The exact percentage is not... yet decided but it is going to be significant," he told the BBC. 
 
 Bank of Cyprus chairman Andreas Artemis later handed in his resignation. 
 
 Media reports said his letter would be examined by the bank's board of directors when they convened in the afternoon. 
 
 Cyprus has exposed the insecurity of Europe's leaders about their currency's future 
 
 His resignation suggests the country's financial establishment is still reeling, says the BBC's Europe correspondent Chris Morris, reporting from Nicosia. 
 
 Later, Mr Sarris told reporters: "The exit of Cyprus from the eurozone, which could mean the exit from the EU, would be disastrous, politically and economically. We do not even want to contemplate it." 
 
 In other Cyprus-related developments: 
 
 The Department for Work and Pensions has said British pensions will not be paid into Cypriot bank accounts for the foreseeable future and has advised expats to open UK accounts 
 
 Piraeus, Greece's third-biggest lender, said it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the deposits, loans and branches owned by the Greek subsidiaries of three Cypriot banks - Bank of Cyprus, Laiki, and the Hellenic Bank - for 524m euros (£445m) 
 
 The head of the eurozone group of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said there were no apparent signs of increased withdrawals of savings from peripheral to core countries in the region as a result of the Cyprus crisis. 
 
 Chancellor George Osborne has said the Treasury is working on a "British solution" for the 13,000 UK customers of Cyprus Popular Bank, part of Laiki Bank, who could lose a proportion of their savings above the 100,000 euros (£85,000) cut-off limit. 
 
 Capital controls 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Michalis Sarris: The exact percentage is going to be significant 
 
 The final size of the loss faced by investors will depend on how the government decides to protect pensions, Mr Sarris said. 
 
 He confirmed that all Cypriot banks will remain closed until Thursday and that capital controls will be placed on the size and the amount of money people will be allowed to withdraw once the banks have reopened. 
 
 These restrictions would "probably be a bit stricter" on the country's two largest banks, Bank of Cyprus and Laiki, and would remain in place until the banking system "stabilises", he said. 
 
 Bailout deal To qualify for 10bn-euro bailout, Cyprus must raise 5.8bn euros Its biggest bank - Bank of Cyprus - to be restructured Second biggest bank - Laiki - to be wound up and split into a "good" bank and "bad" bank Accounts holding under 100,000 euros will be protected in both banks Deposits over 100,000 in Bank of Cyprus are frozen for now Level still to be set at which funds on big deposits will be taxed Cyprus's devastating rescue Few winners in Cyprus deal Q&A: Cyprus deal Cyprus banks reassure UK customers 
 
 The exact details of this "two tier system" would be hammered out with the banks later on Tuesday, he said. 
 
 Mr Sarris is expecting "some bleeding, some outflow" of funds once the banks reopen, but believes that once EU bailout funds begin flowing "in a matter of weeks", confidence will return. 
 
 Although the economy would be badly hit by the economic crisis, Mr Sarris admitted, he maintained that it could benefit from "an energy boom", referring to the exploratory Aphrodite gas fields off the southern coast of the island. 
 
 "Yes, there will be a problem but we will overcome it in a relatively short period of time", he said. He also said his government had renegotiated more favourable loans terms with Russia. 
 
 The Cypriot authorities had said all but the biggest two banks would open on Tuesday. 
 
 Banks have not been open since 15 March. Their reopening had been expected after Cyprus agreed a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) that releases 10bn euros in support. 
 
 It was conditional on Cyprus itself raising 5.8bn euros, most of which looks likely to come from depositors with more than 100,000 euros (£85,000) in Bank of Cyprus and Laiki or Popular Bank. 
 
 'Unique case' 
 
 Members of the European Central Bank (ECB) have been emphasising their view that Cyprus is an isolated case within the eurozone, and that the proposed rescue plan would not be applicable to other eurozone countries. 
 
 Speaking to reporters at a conference in Prague, Ewald Nowotny, member of the ECB's governing council, said: "Cyprus is a special case. It is no model for other instances" - a view earlier expressed by Benoit Coeure, ECB executive board member. 
 
 On Monday, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the eurozone's finance ministers, had spooked the markets when he suggested Cyprus's bailout could serve as template for crises elsewhere - comments he later retracted. 
 
 Many analysts had been concerned that the Cyprus crisis would spread to the wider eurozone had the country been forced to give up the single currency. 
 
 There were fears that the country's possible exit from the euro would trigger a loss of confidence across the single currency bloc, and prompt investors to withdraw from other troubled economies, such as Greece.
– Cypriots hoping to get their hands on what is still technically their money are going to have to wait at least another couple of days. The government has ordered the country's banks, which have been closed since March 15, to stay closed until Thursday to prevent a run on deposits following the last-minute EU bailout deal. People can still make ATM withdrawals, with a daily limit of $130 at the two biggest banks, but the machines often run out of cash and many businesses have stopped accepting debit or credit cards, the AP reports. Meanwhile, Bank of Cyprus chairman Andres Artemis has resigned this morning, reports Reuters. Even when banks reopen, limits on withdrawals are expected to remain, along with measures to prevent money from leaving the country, the BBC reports. Deposits above $130,000 in the two biggest banks, which will be subject to a stiff levy under the bailout deal, will be frozen. President Nicos Anastasiades didn't offer Cypriots many details on the transaction limits that will be imposed, but told them, "I want to assure you that this will be a very temporary measure that will gradually be relaxed," Reuters reports. The BBC spoke with the country's finance minister, who said the levy will be "significant," and as high as 40%.