ECB said to leave emergency aid level for Greek banks unchanged
The European Central Bank left the level of emergency cash available to Greek banks unchanged from a week ago, said two people familiar with the matter.
During a telephone call on Wednesday, the Governing Council left the cap on Emergency Liquidity Assistance at 80.2 billion euros ($87.6 billion), said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Greek lenders still have a liquidity buffer of about 3 billion euros, one of the people said.
No decision was taken to alter the discounts applied to the collateral pledged for the loans from the Bank of Greece, the people said. Spokesmen for the ECB and the Bank of Greece declined to comment.
There has been little convergence in recent talks to release bailout funds the country needs to pay the International Monetary Fund almost 1.6 billion euros next month, people familiar with the matter said. The first of the transfers is due June 5. Greece’s standoff with lenders is likely to be a major topic on the sidelines of a Group of Seven gathering starting Wednesday evening in Dresden, Germany, for finance ministers and central bank governors.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande last week set a target of reaching a deal by the end of May, a goal that Tsipras’s spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said Monday can be reached. [Bloomberg]
