Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Greek banks on the brink

The European Central Bank has stopped monetary policy operations with some Greek banks as they have not been successfully recapitalised, euro zone central bank sources said on Wednesday.

The ECB declined to comment.

The ECB only conducts its refinancing operations with solvent banks. With no access to ECB funds, the banks concerned must go to the Bank of Greece for emergency liquidity assistance (ELA).

It was unclear exactly how many banks were affected.

One person familiar with the matter said four Greek banks' capital was so depleted they were operating with negative equity capital. According to its own rules, the ECB cannot provide liquidity to banks in such a situation.
Read the rest at The Huffington Post
ECB Cuts Off Operations With Some Greek Banks
Reuters

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Si I guess Krugman knew what he was talking about last week when he wrote that surprisingly blunt column stating that everything was about to unravel.

Jonf said...

Dan, maybe he got it right after all.

Trixie said...

Bah, I'm not buying it. Out of the blue, on Sunday afternoon, Krugman comes out with a Greek exit scenario complete with a timeline. Within 48 hours, for the first time ever, European elites begin discussing a possible Grexit. If this pans out, and if in the future, Krugman regularly points to his "Insight for the Ages" call, I'm gonna call BS. "Getting it right" has to mean more than having access to reliable insider information.

Anonymous said...

That's all I mean Trixie. Krugman has contacts who told him what was in the works.