Almost 1 bln euros left Greek bank accounts last Friday
Greek bank deposit outflows surged about fourfold over daily levels to nearly 1 billion euros last Friday on fears of capital controls, two bankers told Reuters on Wednesday, underscoring the increasingly precarious state of the country’s banking system.
Greece’s tortuous talks with its international lenders on a cash-for-reforms deal over the last four months has raised uncertainty and fears of restrictions on money transfers, unnerving savers.
The latest spike occurred on Friday before Greeks left for the long weekend with a bank holiday on Monday.
“The pace of deposit withdrawals peaked on Friday to about 1 billion euros for the system as a whole,” said one banker at a large Greek bank, declining to be named.
“But we have not seen the same in the last two days; withdrawals are smaller.”
Deposits have been dropping steadily since October, with the liquidity squeeze making Greek banks dependent on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) from the domestic central bank.
Another banker said Friday’s withdrawals coincided with value-added tax and social security payments and that outflows had eased this week.
“It was not just worries of capital controls, there were large payments of VAT by businesses as well on Friday,” the banker said.
[Reuters]
