Banks across Cyprus remain firmly padlocked after financial authorities extended the country’s blanket closure, fearing worried depositors will rush to drain their accounts.

Cyprus has clinched a last-minute solution to imminent financial meltdown by agreeing to take up to almost half of the bank savings of the wealthiest, and avoided a disastrous exit from the eurozone, according to the country's finance minister.

Russia’s prime minister has slammed the deal that saves Cyprus from bankruptcy but forces big losses on many bank deposits, a large chunk of which are held by Russians.

Cyprus secured a €10bn package of rescue loans in tense negotiations early today, saving the country from a banking system collapse and bankruptcy.

The European Union said today a top official will chair a high-level meeting on Cyprus in a last-ditch effort to seal a deal before finance ministers decide whether the island nation gets a €10bn bailout loan to save it from bankruptcy.

It has been confirmed that savings accounts in Cyprus holding more than €100,000 will be hit by a controversial levy.

Politicians in Cyprus are racing to complete an alternative plan to raise the funds necessary for the country to qualify for an international bailout, with a potential bankruptcy just three days away.

Cyprus’s relations with Russia are taking a severe battering.

Cyprus is being pressed to restructure or shut down two of its three banks and to take a 10% slice off the deposits of more than €100,000 from the up to €60bn in its banks, as well as from bondholders.

Cypriots are struggling through a sorry saga while their leaders figure out a solution, even though potential EU and Russian saviours are keeping their cards hidden. It’s a situation Europe is all too familiar with, says Kyran Fitzgerald

Cyprus lawmakers have approved three key bills aiming to secure a broader bailout package and stave off imminent bankruptcy.

Cypriot MPs are due to vote today on a raft of new measures they hope will qualify the country for a bailout package and avoid financial ruin next week. But officials in Brussels and Berlin gave no indication it would be enough.

Cypriot politicians have agreed to set up an investment fund as part of a 'Plan B' to secure a bailout deal and they have ruled out a tax on bank deposits that sank an earlier deal.

Cyprus has four days to agree on a new plan to raise funds to avoid bankruptcy after the European Central Bank warned that it would pull the plug on the country’s banks at the start of next week if no bailout deal is agreed.

Cyprus’s president is meeting party leaders to secure their support for a revised plan to raise €5.8bn that international creditors have demanded in exchange for a larger rescue package that would prevent the country’s bankruptcy.

Cypriot leaders are to decide today on a newly drawn-up plan aimed at securing a bailout for the near-bankrupt eurozone member, after parliament rejected a controversial tax on savings.

A senior member of the Cypriot government is warning that the country's two biggest banks may never open again.

Cyprus is trying to come up with an alternative plan to stave off bankruptcy after parliament rejected a scheme to seize up to 10% of people’s bank savings.

The head of Cyprus’s influential Orthodox Church says he will put the church’s assets at the country’s disposal to help pull it out of a financial crisis, after politicians rejected a plan to seize up to 10% of people’s bank deposits to secure an international bailout.

The Cypriot President has called an emergency meeting of party leaders in a frantic effort to put together a plan B after MPs rejected the terms of an EU bailout aimed at saving the country from bankruptcy.

The euro was in line for further turmoil last night after the Cypriot parliament rejected the troika’s bailout terms and turned to Moscow for help.

Eurozone finance ministers agreed last night to allow Cyprus reduce the amount of money they take from small savers, but many believe the damage has already been done to the euro.

If bank deposits can be seized in Cyprus to fund its bailout, then they can be seized in other EU countries as well, argues Felix Salmon

Deposit account holders need not fear a Cyprus-style tax on their savings, according to Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton.

Amazingly nobody seems to want to claim credit for the great Cypriot bank raid, and it’s hard to find anyone with a good word to say about the “deal” which has put all of Europe into a Boylean “state o‘ chassis”.

Global stock markets fell yesterday as concerns over European sovereign debt returned to the forefront after the eurozone’s decision on partially funding a bailout of Cyprus by taxing bank deposits.

The raid on Cypriot bank deposits, held in the name of ordinary people, businesses, institutions, communities, and prudent savers, breaks one of the fundamental trust-based relationships that has sustained western societies for centuries.

A bailout plan to stop Cyprus’ financial system collapsing threatens a raid on small depositors’ savings, a precedent that may worry other countries, writes Hugo Dixon