The Eurosystem and the Cypriot authorities have struck a deal that will allow the disbursement of €10 billion ($13 billion) in bail-out funds, just in time to avoid the European Central Bank's (ECB) deadline for cutting off emergency liquidity.

Under the terms of the agreement, the controversial tax the government had planned to levy on deposits supposedly covered by deposit insurance has been scrapped. Instead, depositors above the €100,000 insurance threshold will take a much harder hit, as