The "No" vote has the lead in opinion polls, according to the FT One major Greek bank is near collapse The polls close at 5 p.m. London time; first official projection expected around 7 p.m. Germany fears a "No" vote will tear a huge hole in its budget The ECB makes a statement: "Our will to act in this matter should not be doubted." Greece is voting today in a nationwide referendum on whether the accept the EU bailout package. If it votes "Yes" (Nai), it must continue to repay the crushing debt load to the IMF that has crippled the country's economy over the last few years. But the country does get to stay in the EU and keep the euro as its currency. If it votes "No" (Oki), then Greece will likely default on almost all its remaining debt, maybe exit the EU, abandon the euro and re-adopt its old currency, the drachma. That would plunge Greece into even more economic turmoil as it would become an international pariah, largely cut off from the credit markets countries need to finance themselves. Here is our live coverage: The governor of the Bank of Greece is preparing to become prime minister if the nation votes "yes" The Telegraph reports: Now this would be a turn up for the books. AEP has heard rumours that Yannis Stournaras, the current Bank of Greece governor and former finance minister, is set to head up a technocratic government if Mr Tsipras resigns tonight. Mr Stounaras is not an uncontroversial choice. He has been pilloried by the Syriza government for warning that Greece will be thrown into apocalyptic turmoil if they ever left the euro - seen as a breach of the institution's politically neutral line. He has also been sued by one Syriza MP for issuing the report which was denounced by the head of the country's parliament. Everyone loves this photo of a bearded man casting his vote in Crete We've seen it everywhere in the media. Reuters nailed it. One thing to note, he is voting in Anogia/Anogeia a tiny little village way outside the Cretian capital of Heraklion. Reuters really went out of its way to get this one: Reuters has some great pics of Greeks voting in tiny rural areas Another shot from Anogia More reports that "No" is in the lead The BBC reports that Greek journalists believe that the "No" vote will win. This is the second report of the day suggesting No has a slight lead in the voting. But — as Britain learned in its general election in May — opinion polls and predictions have a habit of turning out to be surprisingly wrong! So let's not get too excited. Der Spiegal calls Angela Merkel 'woman of the ruins' Brutal front cover: Twitter has woken up to the IMF report from a few days ago that admitted the Greek debt was unsustainable Until a few days ago, the narrative around the Greece crisis was that the damn Greeks should just pay their taxes, repay their debt, and get rid of some of the crazy public spending policies that cosset its citizens. But on July 2, the IMF released this report in which it admits that there was no way Greece could ever pay back its debt, vote or no vote. Here is the key passage: At the last review in May 2014, Greece’s public debt was assessed to be getting back on a path toward sustainability, though it remained highly vulnerable to shocks. By late summer 2014, with interest rates having declined further, it appeared that no further debt relief would have been needed under the November 2012 framework, if the program were to have been implemented as agreed. But significant changes in policies since then—not least, lower primary surpluses and a weak reform effort that will weigh on growth and privatization—are leading to substantial new financing needs. Coming on top of the very high existing debt, these new financing needs render the debt dynamics unsustainable ... Staff at Reuters and The Economist have been tweeting about it this morning, as has The Telegraph: Mike Bird has some great photos from Greece Business Insider's markets reporter has been in Athens all week, watching the protests and the ATM lines in the streets as the Greeks queue for their daily ration of 60 euros in cash. He has produced an astonishing set of stories of what it is like in a major, modern economy that has simply run out of money. He's got a great report with loads of photos here. And this story describes the mounting dread ordinary Greeks have. Basically, no matter which way tonight's vote goes, Greeks on both sides of the question believe the future will only get worse. The ECB makes a statement The European Central Bank says it will stand ready no matter what (per The Guardian): In the current circumstances of great uncertainty in Europe and the world, the ECB has been clear that if we need to do more we will do more. We will find the necessary instruments. Our will to act in this matter should not be doubted. No prizes for guessing which way Prime Minister Tsipras voted A nice photo of Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis casting his vote The IMF admits Greece's debt was unsustainable The Telegraph has a good analysis of how everyone involved in the negotiations knew Greece could never repay the debt the IMF and the EU had extended to the country. Economics blogger Ashoka Mody says the EU tried to "suppress" the report: The IMF’s report is important because it reveals that the creditors negotiated with Greece in bad faith. For months, a haze was allowed to settle over the question of Greek debt sustainability. The timing of the report’s release—on the eve of a historic Greek referendum, well after the technical negotiations have broken down—suggests that there was no intention to allow a sober analysis of the Greek debt burden. Paul Taylor of Reuters tells us that the European authorities worked hard to suppress it and Landon Thomas of the New York Times reports that, until a few days ago, the IMF had played along. One of the big four Greek banks is near collapse Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of The Telegraph is tweeting from Athens: And: The "No" camp reportedly has the lead The Financial Times has seen opinion polls that have not yet been made public: Last-minute opinion polls indicated a knife-edge result, with voters narrowly favouring Mr Tsipras’s call for a No vote to reject a last-ditch bailout offer by Greece’s creditors, even though it has already expired. Between 51 and 53 per cent of voters would back No, according to one unpublished poll seen by the Financial Times. Banks bring in extra FX staff, expecting a volatile week Investment banks are bringing in extra staff to handle the craziness that will occur in the FX markets when the result is known, the FT says: The currency markets will resume trading on Monday morning in Asia, beginning in Australia and New Zealand at 10pm London time, or 5pm in New York. HSBC confirmed it was bringing in extra staff, and JPMorgan is expected to do the same. Deutsche Bank said staff would be covering the referendum, but it was wrong to view them as extra staff. Bank of America Merrill Lynch declined to comment. Germany is terrified a Grexit will ruin its budget If Greece votes No and leaves the euro, defaulting on all its debt, then Germany won't get back a huge sum of money it has used to finance Greece, The Telegraph reports: German business daily Handelsblatt is reporting comments from Jens Weidmann, Germany's central bank chief, who has privately told the government a Grexit will decimate the country's budget. The report Germany has already set aside €14.4bn in a firefighting fund against a euro crisis. But Mr Weidmann told officials this will not be sufficient in the case of a Grexit. Should Greece suffer a total collapse of its banks and choose to default on the ECB, there is a €110bn liability in the form of the eurosystems Target2 funds which the rest of the eurozone may have to bear the costs of.Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This 1998 supercar could auction for $15 million
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