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Monday, July 20, 2015

Greek banks reopen to a surprise: no deluge of panic-stricken customers

‘People have behaved so responsibly, so maturely,’ say staff at historical Athens headquarters of National Bank of Greece on first day after 21-day forced closureAt 6am on Monday morning Dimitris Rombopoulos was at his post as the security guard outside the National Bank of Greece. By 6.30 the first of a small but steady stream of people, mostly white-haired pensioners, had begun to appear. Rombopoulos, tall, dark, his tie slightly askew, braced for the worse. “I thought after three weeks of the banks being closed it’s going to be crazy,” he said. “I thought maybe I’d need reinforcement.”So when the giant doors of the bank’s historical headquarters at 86 Aeolou Street finally opened, Rombopoulos had a bit of a surprise. “About 70 people had gathered and most of them were pensioners wanting to withdraw cash,” he added. “And that was about as big as the crowd got.” Continue reading...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com