The bank bail-out in Cyprus is small in comparison with the overall eurozone crisis, involving about €10bn to re-capitalise the commercial and co-operative banks, plus sovereign support of about €7bn.
So the decision to bail-in insured bank deposits of under €100,000 came as a surprise to the markets, which had been working on the assumption the EU would not risk contagion to raise the comparatively small sum of €5.8bn.
