The European Central Bank approved the application the Bank of Greece to activate the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) for systemic banks of the country. According to Imerisia.gr, the ELA funding will go to Eurobank, Piraeus and Alpha Bank. The fourth systemic bank, National Bank, has apparently not submitted an ELA request.
The approval is valid for 15 days and if Greek banks would need more funding, a new application request has to be submitted and the ECB will need to take a new decision.
Last week, BoG governor Yiannis Stournaras submitted the application request to ECB as a precaution against a possible liquidity crisis due to the elections on upcoming Sunday.
The amount of ELFa funding has not been announced, Greek media had estimated to be some 5 billion euros.
A bank deposits withdrawal has been going on since December due to political and economic uncertainty.
ELA is aimed to cover funding gaps due to deposit outflows and non-renewal of repos that may not be covered by ECB due to the absence of eligible collaterals. (source)
