The Governor of Bank of Greece (BoG) and former Finance Minister Giannis Stournaras appeared confident today that the Greek banks’ liquidity is absolutely guaranteed and that the deposits are completely secured. In a meeting with the SYRIZA-led government Vice President, Giannis Dragasakis, whom he briefed on the latest developments in the domestic banking system earlier today, Mr. Stournaras explained that the liquidity assistance to the Greek banks by the European Central Bank (ECB) will now be provided through the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) mechanism of the Bank of Greece. In addition, the former Finance Minister of the Samaras administration underlined that the Greek banks deposit outflow is manageable and under control. In the period prior to the critical Greek elections of January 25 — that brought leftist, anti-austerity SYRIZA to power — Greek banks saw some billions of euros being withdrawn from depositors. A statement issued by the Bank of Greece on January 11 said: “After reports about deposit outflows from the country’s banks, the Bank of Greece notes that the situation is under full control. The Bank of Greece along with the European Central Bank are monitoring closely the developments and intervene whenever this is necessary.” Giannis Storunaras and Giannis Dragasakis met to table the European Central Bank’s decision to cease accepting Greek bonds as collateral to provide liquidity, starting from February 11. As the country’s central banker stressed this decision is reversible and might be changed in the future as it has happened before. The precondition for the decision to be lifted is that the Greek government concludes to an agreement with its partners regarding the future of the country’s bailout program.
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