The European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to end its emergency lending to Greek banks at the forthcoming meeting of its governing council on Sunday. According to sources, Greece will probably have to “announce bank holiday on Monday, pending the introduction of capital controls”, the BBC reports. Greek banks, which are dependent on the ECB's Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), will find themselves in serious trouble in case the decision is taken. Capital controls are restrictions on the amount customers can withdraw from banks and until now the Greek government has not signified its intention to impose such controls. In the past weeks, Greeks have withdrawn billions of euros from banks and long queues formed at cashpoints on Saturday amid fears that banks would not open on Monday. The ECB has been sending emergency funds on a daily basis to the Greek central bank, which then allocates it to the high-street banks. This news comes as the Greek Parliament approved the proposal of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for the country to hold a bailout referendum on July 5.
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