Political instability and potential euro exit have increased fears among Greeks who withdrew some 6 billion euro from bank accounts in the last 15-20 days. Panicked citizens believe it is ‘safer’ to have euro bank notes at home, than to let savings at the banks exposing them to the danger of automatic exchange into drachmas. The outflow is expected to continue as June 17 elections approach.
According to report by Proto Thema, large amounts of money is being withdrawn even from ‘corporate accounts’. The phenomenon of account holders to withdraw more than 80,000-100,000 euro is not seldom.
According to rough estimations 6 to 7 billion euro have been pulled out from the banks in the last 15 days, bringing the total outflow to 80 billion euro in the last two years.
This decrease of deposits has dramatic impact in the Greek banking system, despite the ‘financial injection’ of 18 billion euro four banks received by the EFSF in the context of banks recapitalisation. “Part of this aid is being used to cover the loss by the deposits withdrawals and yet, the sharp decrease of the system capacities make it impossible to support with liquidity the real economy,” notes the newspaper apparently citing sources from the banking sector.
Another problem are the loans, with the banking sources stressing that “hardly a company pays back loan installments in time even if it does not have liquidity problems”. The usual answer is “possibly after the elections” say the bankers quoting borrowers.
At the same time, the top question of bank customers remains “What shall I do with my money?”
Banks can respond to immediate withdrawing demands of 30,000-40,000 euro, for larger amounts they would need a notice a couple of days in advance.
Source: Proto Thema.gr
