President of Greek Banks Association Louka Katseli appealed at the citiznes to return their money to the banks. “Banks are absolutely trustworthy,” Katseli told Mega TV “as guaranteed by the ECB and the Bank Association, but they would have been even more powerful if 40 billion euros had not been withdrawn in the last months.
Katseli, a former PASOK Minister, appealed to citizens to return their deposits to the banks “now that the banks are open” after a three-week holiday and capital controls.
“Let’s all help our economy,” Katseli urged Greeks and added “If you take your money out of your chests and houses – which are not safe in any case – and deposit at banks, this will enhance liquidity.”
“Τhere will be no need to “haircut” deposits in the future if we all act responsibly,” she added -cheerfully I suppose.
Katseli’s appeal triggered laughter among Greeks and one stressed with hint to capital controls “Oh yes! I will bring my money back to the bank and get it back 60 by 60 euro.”
Another one noted “Ah sure! Banks will never see my money again, I prefer to buy tones of peanuts with it.”
A third commented “Certainly. And the banks will go bust after a while…”
A fourth reckoned a very unfortunate incident in 2010 and busted into tears and laughter. Back then Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos had appealed to the Greeks to buy Greek bonds. The man invested 10,000 euro to help Greece. Two years later, his investment underwent a 53%-Haircut due to the PSI. Now the nominal value of his investment is …”I don’t even open the envelopes coming from the bank anymore, too frustrating,” he told me.
How can Greeks trust the banks after what has happened? Already many worry about their deposits as mergers of Greek banks are reportedly due. Even though they know that merger do not end in losing your money. Or does it? huh?
In the Ukraine the cost of living has gone uo by 88%.
There is no valid reason for such high costs.
it is onle ever a means of ASSET STRIPPING the population.
By the Political Arena in co-opperation with the Banking & Financial Sectors.
They must believe that the population has GOLD under it’s beds.
Once they have secured the savings of the Greek population they will go looking to secure the GOLD for under the beds of the Greeks.
She should ask the finance-ministry about the galloping VAT-revenues the last weeks from bought empty jewellery- and tv-stores, please Louka, break into my house, no money left
I think that everyone on the Lagarde list should first be required to return THEIR monies to Greece.
Ha! Seeing as they are most of the people who actually caused the crisis by allowing or engineering Greece’s entry to the euro, they are the ones who profited from euro entry, and they are the ones who created the bank liquidity or assets crisis — no, returning the money is the least they can do.
AS a non-Greek I would recommend prosecution for treason and removal of Greek citizenship if they have another one (which probably all do).
you are right, they have two or three citizenships, of the States where the big finance places are. Have you ever calculated how many billions the Greek people paid interests on bank credits or loans? Before the Euro was introduced it was hard for the Greek governments to find fresh money, they had to pay 10 0/0 (exempt from taxes). With the Euro the Greek government and their friends, the bankers in Greece, Germany, France, Italy etc.could continue to play poker with the money of the others.
February 5, 2015 – ECB triggered a new bank run in Greece, putting the liquidity in jeopardy, just few days past the election of the new government.
I’m still trying to find what was the appeal of Bank Union to the ECB at the time.
Banks cannot marry, but they can merge! What’s the difference?
Pwerful banks… is that precisely the problem to start with. What we need is far less powerful banks and politicians with enough balls to let those banks go bust instead of assisting the banks in passing their losses on to the tax payers. That would solve another problem also, the problem of abdicating responsibility by both the banks and the politicians. It’s good to dream…
Soon, Greek parliament will vote on new banking law (to follow Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive) that will allow confiscation of deposits over e100.000 if a bank has to be liquidated. This level of insurance is not much for any business. But deposit insurance (up to e100.000) is an illusion, as there is only 3B in deposit insurance fund (is it still even there?). In reality, Greek bank depositors have very little insurance.
Greeks are right to not trust Greek banks.