Five days after Cyprus’s panicked leaders ordered banks to close their doors, the fate of the financial system hangs in the balance and credit cards are going out of fashion.

“I plan to have at least €1,000 on me at all times,” Constantinos Tsissios, a 34-year-old banker, said at a downtown ATM in the capital, Nicosia.

“We’ve taken as much out as we could,” he said yesterday.

“You don’t know what might happen over the next few days.”

Reluctant to accept the promise of payment from customers, shop owners have said wholesalers are demanding cash on delivery. Some petrol stations are also refusing credit cards. Retailers with only Cypriot bank accounts are struggling to ship supplies in from abroad and gentlemanly arrangements are bridging the gap.

“Because of what’s going on the suppliers ask for a small amount, say 50 per cent, in cash, so they can meet their costs,” said Federico Basonidis, a 25-year-old worker at a kiosk selling cigarettes, newspapers and sweets.

Spooked by an aborted bid to tax their savings, Cypriots are fast losing confidence that their money will still be there when - or if - banks reopen, which will be on Tuesday at the earliest.

Rumours yesterday that one teetering bank would be allowed to fall saw queues grow at ATMs at a downtown branch, as staff behind locked doors replenished cash machines.

Some of the bank’s employees, fearing for their jobs, faced off with riot police outside parliament.

“We have children studying abroad and next month we need to send them money so they can eat,” protester Stalou Christodoulido said through tears.