Key data missing from Cyprus bank

As reported by the BBC, it appears that data deletion software was used to erase key data at the Bank of Cyprus.

Some key data about bond purchases by Bank of Cyprus - now the focus of a controversial EU-IMF bailout - is missing, investigators have found. 

The gaps were found in computer records studied by a financial consultancy, Alvarez and Marsal, Cypriot media say....

The Cyprus Mail website says information provided by Bank of Cyprus was incomplete and data-deleting software was found on some computers there. 

There were significant gaps in computer records for the period 2007-2010. It is not yet clear whether the wiping of records was accidental or deliberate. There were signs of mass deletion of data.

From a Reuters article we learn,

Regulators asked Cyprus's largest bank to provide information about its ultimately disastrous holdings of Greek debt as long as three years ago but got no immediate response and did not follow up, an external investigation said. 

A report seen by Reuters said that the recent investigation was hampered by "unnecessary delays" in getting documentation from commercial Bank of Cyprus BOC.CY - one of the banks at the center of Cyprus's international bailout - and that some computers at the bank may have been wiped.

The critical point here is not that data was deleted, but that had the banks been required to provide ultra transparency and disclose on an ongoing basis their current global asset, liability and off-balance sheet exposure details the regulators and market participants would have had access to the relevant information for assessing the banks' risk and solvency.