Greece is considering further easing of capital controls with the increase of the cap for cash withdrawing and limiting restrictions to businesses. The new measures could be implemented as soon as 1. June, that is on the third year the restrictions were imposed.
According to media reports, the new measures were recently discussed at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Greek Association of Banks. The proposals were tabled by the Greek Finance Ministry and the Bank of Greece.
A proposal to increase the cash withdrawal cap to 3,000 euro has been rejected. Banks prefer the cap to be set at 2,500 per month, from 2,300 currently.
Banks reportedly seem to accept the further easing for business transactions outside Greece. A proposal under discussion does not exclude the full liberalization of revenues coming from abroad.
The proposal foresees that revenues obtained from abroad (payments also from foreign cards) can be send in full anywhere outside Greece.
There is also debate to double the amount that can be executed directly through the banks without the precondition of transaction ‘history’. The amount could be raised form 20,000 euros to 40,000 per client per day.
The last easing of capital controls was implemented on March 1st, with the monthly withdrawal cap to have been raised form 1,800 to 2,300.
