The European Central Bank has approved €68.3 billion as a two-week extension on emergency liquidity for Greek banks. The ECB had already raised the total amount of funding available to Greek banks through emergency loans, known as Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), to €65 billion. So, Greek banks will be funded with €3.3 billion.
Greece’s central bank had requested an extension of about €10 billion in need for emergency liquidity.
Meanwhile, €300 - €500 million is withdrawn daily from Greek banks. Since December, clients have taken about €20 billion from their accounts which make up over 10% of total deposits in the country. A size of bank deposits contracted 2.4% to €160.3 billion in December compared to November.
Recently, the ECB rejected Greek government bonds as security for loans. Athens submitted a request for a six-month extension of the bailout program to Brussels. There was a scenario that the request could be denied. Greece’s creditors expected the newly elected government to sign the agreement on the bailout program expiring at the end of February.
