The chairman of the Bank of Cyprus has resigned in the wake of an international bailout deal that hits the island's biggest lender, state media reported on Tuesday.

The Cyprus News Agency said the bank's chairman Andreas Artemis had tendered his resignation and it would go before the board later in the day.

The Spanish central bank forecast on Tuesday that the eurozone's fourth biggest economy will contract even more this year than in 2012, but would then benefit from "a modest rebound in 2014".

The Bank of Spain estimated that business activity would shrink by 1.5 percent in 2013, on the heels of a 1.37 percent contraction last year, and then expand by 0.6 percent in 2014.

The Nasdaq on Monday had the backing of U.S. regulators who approved the stock exchange's latest plan to compensate investors for the botched debut of Facebook shares last year.

Despite concerns expressed by some investors, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission endorsed Nasdaq's proposal to amend its rules to create a $62 million pool of cash to pay out claims related to the Facebook IPO, documents available online showed.

Germany is keen to boost its already substantial investment in Brazil ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio summer Olympics, the new president of the Brazil-Germany Chamber of Commerce said here Monday.

"There are many (German) companies, particularly small and medium-sized ones -- who see prospects for business in Brazil" despite the country's faltering economic growth (0.9 percent last year)," said Thomas Schmall, who has just been elected chamber president for a two-year term.

Cyprus reversed course and decided to keep its banks shut Tuesday as world markets took fright at the implications for the eurozone of the 10-billion-euro bailout deal with international creditors.

President Nicos Anastasiades defended the deal in a speech to fellow Cypriots, but promised a criminal investigation to identify those responsible for the financial debacle.

President Nicos Anastasiades admitted the eurozone bailout deal he struck in Brussels on Monday was painful but said Cyprus could now make a fresh start after having come a "breath away" from collapse.

He had taken "painful decisions to save the country from bankruptcy" and pledged that Cyprus "would find its feet again".

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that Moscow intended to study the consequences of the Cyprus bailout deal agreed in Brussels amid analyst warnings of Russian deposits suffering the biggest hit.

"We have to figure out what this story turns into in the long run, what the consequences for the international financial and monetary system will be -- and thus, for our own interests as well," news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying in Russia's first official response to the rescue.

China Construction Bank, one of the country's top four lenders, said its net profit rose 14.1 percent year-on-year in 2012, lifted by growth in net interest income.

Net profit was 193.2 billion yuan ($31.2 billion) last year, rising from 169.3 billion yuan in 2011, the bank said in a statement over the weekend.

Japan and the European Union launched talks on a free trade agreement Monday with a telephone summit held between their leaders, a Japanese minister said.

The telephone talks were in place of a face to face meeting between EU Council and Commission heads Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso, and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which were shelved while Europe grappled with debt problems in Cyprus.

The eurozone struck a deadline-day deal with Cyprus Monday to resurrect a bailout for its government, but only after a radical downsizing of the island's financial sector.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades battled for 12 hours with his euorzone partners and the IMF.