The Cypriot heritage of Beirut Hellenic Bank had some impact on the bank's retail deposits in March, when the crisis in the troubled Mediterranean economy was at its peak.Australian Prudential Authority data show that household deposits at Beirut Hellenic fell by A$28 million in March, equal to five per cent of the bank's deposit book. The deposit outflow since the beginning of the year has amounted to more than six per cent and has reversed a year of deposit growth.Asked what to make of this outflow, James Wakim, the bank's managing director, said yesterday: "Nothing at all. We had one large withdrawal."If you are referring to the Cypriot crisis, when this occurred we had some anxious customers. We addressed their concerns. Maybe 20 to 30 left. Some have come back."We had anticipated the questions people would ask us. We assured people we were a local Australian bank regulated by APRA."We have no exposure to Cyprus. Given the predominantly Greek customer base, we expected people to be anxious. We addressed the issues and explained the issues to them."Wakim said the bank's new owner, Bank of Beirut, would buy the remaining stake of 7.5 per cent still held by Cyprus Popular Bank in the next two weeks. Bank of Beirut bought a controlling stake in what was formerly known as Laiki Bank Australia in early 2011.Wakim said the bank's liquidity was 30 per cent."Our liquidity position is probably higher than any other bank in Australia, proportionally speaking. "We have much higher liquidity than regulators require and [this] has always been [so]. It's not because of Cyprus but [because of our] conservative shareholders.To help maintain this liquidity, the bank has had to pay rates that are above the market.According to RateCity's database, Beirut Hellenic Bank's current online savings account, Smart Net Account, has a maximum rate for a balance of between $25,000 and $249,999 of 4.40 per cent. The current average online savings account rate for this balance range is 3.61 per cent.In the year to December 2012, Beirut Hellenic reported a 31 per cent rise in profits, to $3.6 million.Its regulatory capital ratio at the end of the year was 23.1 per cent.