Greece’s
banks may need an injection of fresh emergency funds to operate Monday as
people rushed to pull out money after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a
referendum that could decide his country’s fate in the euro.
The
European Central Bank’s governing council was expected to hold a conference
call on Sunday to review the banks’ liquidity condition, said a Greek official,
who asked not to be named in line with policy. The Frankfurt-based central bank
said in a twitter post that it’s closely monitoring developments and would
review the situation “in due course.”
Some banks
were placing limits in daily cash transactions. Yiota Kardogianni, a manager at
a branch of Piraeus Bank SA, said cash withdrawals were limited at 3,000 euros
($3,350) daily and ATM withdrawals at 600 euros. Alpha Bank AE had set a daily
limit of 5,000 euros for most of its branches since last week.
“I’m here
to take my mother’s pension out before the machine runs out of cash,” said
Erato Spyropoulou, who was standing in a line of about eight people at one of
National Bank of Greece SA’s ATMs. “It’s very worrying what’s happening because
people don’t know what they’re being asked to vote for. It’s the last nail in
Greece’s coffin.”
Euro-area
finance ministers rejected Greece’s request for a one-month extension of its
aid program, which expires Tuesday, shutting down any last chance for a
financial stopgap until the referendum is held.
After
withdrawing more than 30 billion euros as the anti-austerity Coalition of the
Radical Left, or Syriza, took power, depositors are now reacting to the latest
twist in the five-month standoff with European leaders and creditors. One
banker said 110 million euros had been withdrawn from his institution as of
11:30 a.m. Athens time on Saturday.
Capital Controls
“Greek
legislation allows either the Bank of Greece governor or the finance ministry
to impose capital restrictions,” George Saravelos, foreign exchange strategist
at Deutsche Bank AG, wrote in a note to clients. “The extent to which this
materializes will depend on the ECB decision over the next 48 hours as well as
depositor behavior.”
Some
branches of Alpha Bank in central Athens that normally open for business on
Saturdays remained shut and one carried a sign that it wouldn’t open. Only a
few banks near central shopping and tourist areas are usually open on
Saturdays.
About 100
people had lined up at a Piraeus Bank branch at a central Athens street before
it opened. Some said they had waited for about three hours. Once word got out
that the bank wouldn’t open, one elderly woman fainted.
As an
ambulance pulled by to take her away, others spewed vitriol at everyone from
the Greek prime minister to Germany.
“Tsipras
said he would turn things around, but things are only going to get worse,” said
Stavros, a 61-year-old retired sailor, who was lining up to withdraw his
pension. He said he was initially planning to go to the bank on Monday but
decided to line up on Saturday when he heard about the government’s referendum
plans.
He said he
won’t be able to pay his mortgage if the banking system doesn’t open on Monday.
Πηγή: bloomberg.com
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου