Bank Of Cyprus Launches Targeted Voluntary Exit Plan Amid Structural Shifts

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

November 7, 2025

Bank Of Cyprus, in an effort to adapt to market changes driven by digital transformation, has announced a voluntary exit plan affecting 40 to 50 employees. The scheme, which offers a maximum tax-free severance package of €200,000, is available until November 21. It is primarily aimed at staff working in divisions where business volumes have notably declined, such as those managing non-performing loan portfolios.

Measured Approach And Previous Precedents

This initiative follows a similar, measured approach from last year, when the bank introduced a targeted exit offer for up to 50 employees from its overall workforce of 2,800. According to Panikos Nicolaou, CEO of Bank Of Cyprus, there will be no large-scale rounds of exits; future offers will continue to be selective, targeting only a small subset of employees at a time.

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Union Criticism Over Compensation And Consultation

The move has triggered a strong response from the banking union EITYK. In an official circular, the union expressed its disagreement with the bank’s unilateral decision—particularly noting that the plan was communicated to employees on the same day as the union was informed. EITYK criticized the offer as ill-timed, given the bank’s current profitability and stable performance, and questioned the rationale of promoting a voluntary exit scheme when the organization is already operating with a leaner permanent staff supplemented by hundreds of external contractors.

Calls For Enhanced Compensation In Challenging Economic Times

The union has urged that any future voluntary exit plan should address the economic realities by increasing the maximum severance package to at least €250,000. It emphasized that, considering the strong financial performance of banks and the eroding value of money due to inflation, better compensation is justified. Furthermore, employees opting for voluntary separation will lose eligibility for unemployment benefits due to recent legislative changes, though they will retain medical and life insurance coverage for a minimum of five years following their departure.

Parallel Developments In The Banking Sector

In a related development, similar concerns have been raised by the management of the National Bank Of Cyprus, following an analogous union letter. Both institutions now face heightened scrutiny from labor representatives, who insist on improved consultation practices and compensation measures that better reflect the economic parameters of today’s market.

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Copyright Law Struggles To Keep Up With AI Training

by News Editor

August 24, 2026

Courts Are Still Applying Old Copyright Rules To AI

AI companies train models on enormous amounts of published material, including books, articles and academic research. Whether using that content without authors’ permission violates copyright law remains unresolved.

Much of the debate centres on fair use, which allows copyrighted material to be used without permission in certain circumstances. Courts consider factors such as the purpose of the use, how much material was involved and its impact on the original market.

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Anthropic Case Sets An Important Precedent

A major case involving Anthropic and a group of authors provided one of the clearest rulings so far. Judge William Alsup found that using copyrighted books to train AI models was lawful, comparing the process to people reading and studying literature before creating something new.

Anthropic was nevertheless ordered to pay $1.5 billion in a settlement. The penalty concerned books the company had obtained from illegal online libraries rather than the AI training itself.

For AI companies, that distinction could prove significant because it separates studying copyrighted material from directly copying it.

Competition Could Be The Key Issue

A case involving Thomson Reuters and Ross Intelligence offers a different perspective. A court ruled that Ross could not claim fair use after using Reuters’ copyrighted material to develop a competing AI-powered legal research platform.

The decision suggests courts may be less willing to consider AI training fair use when copyrighted content is used to build a product that directly competes with the original.

For authors, an unresolved question is whether AI-generated content should be considered competition for the works used to train these models.

The Law Has Yet To Catch Up

US copyright law predates generative AI by decades, leaving courts to apply old principles to new technology. Questions also remain over copyright protection for AI-generated works. In Thaler v. Perlmutter, a court ruled that material created entirely by AI cannot receive copyright protection.

Major AI companies remain involved in copyright litigation, and different courts could reach different conclusions. For now, there is no universal rule: the legality of AI training will depend on the circumstances of each case and how courts ultimately interpret copyright and fair use.

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