The Greek Bank Runs Have Begun: Two Greek Banks Request Emergency Liquidity Assistance

OK Folks, Is this The Watch Out Below Moment we all have gad the feeling is coming sooner or later. Is this now the sooner? As one of our recent US Presidents said during our 2008 Meltdown "This Sucker's Going Down!" No prize for guessing which President that insightful comment that was from. It looks like our Greek Buddies might just be doing that Final Swirl Round The Financial Bowl!

So, What do Y'All Think? Are we nearing the time that all The Stackers and Preppers were preparing for and hoped would never really happen? Or is this just another Head Fake on A Long Slow Stinking Mess our Social Engineers have gotten us into?

My Opinion is (Hopefully) that The Germans are going to have to come to The Rescue Again and Help The Poor Ol Greeks out. I just can't see them letting A Western European Nation go down this hard and not do anything about it.

Anywaze My ATS Brothers and Sisters your Input and just reading as always are most appreciated. It's nearly Friday and Hopefully they can push this to the weekend, so that somebody can be an adult and not let this thing hit The World Economy Like A Bomb.

Thanks for taking A Look at this article and Peace, Love and Donny Osmond Arjunanda

(Article: Zerohedge)

The first time the phrase Emergency Liquidity Assistance, or ELA, was used in the context of Greece was in August 2011, when Greece was imploding, when its banking sector was on (and past) the verge of collapse, and just before the ECB had to unleash a global coordinated bailout with other central banks including global central bank liquidity swap and unleash the LTRO to preserve the Eurozone.

As a reminder, this is what happened back then: "In a move described as the "last stand for Greek banks", the embattled country's central bank activated Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) for the first time on Wednesday night."

"Although it was done discreetly, news that Athens had opened the fund filtered out and was one of the factors that rattled markets across Europe. At one point Germany's Dax was down 4pc before it recovered. The ELA was designed under European rules to allow national central banks to provide liquidity for their own lenders when they run out of collateral of a quality that can be used to trade with the ECB. It is an obscure tool that is supposed to be temporary and one of the last resorts for indebted banks."

Raoul Ruparel of Open Europe told The Telegraph: "The activation of the so-called ELA looks to be the last stand for Greek banks and suggests they are running alarmingly short of quality collateral usually used to obtain funding."

He added: "This kicks off another huge round of nearly worthless assets being shifted from the books of private banks onto books backed by taxpayers. Combined with the purchases of Spanish and Italian bonds, the already questionable balance sheet of the euro system is looking increasingly risky."
As a further reminder, this is how cryptically little the ECB has to say about its "last-ditch" liquidity bailout program:

Euro area credit institutions can receive central bank credit not only through monetary policy operations but exceptionally also through emergency liquidity assistance (ELA). ELA means the provision by a Eurosystem national central bank (NCB) of
central bank money and/or
any other assistance that may lead to an increase in central bank money
to a solvent financial institution, or group of solvent financial institutions, that is facing temporary liquidity problems, without such operation being part of the single monetary policy.
We bring this up because things in Greece just went bump in the night. Again.

Recall that as we reported three days ago, while Greece refused to admit that it was suffering a bank run ahead of a potentially game-changing election, it did report that "most taxpayers have chosen to delay their [tax] payments, given that the positions of the two main parties leading the election polls are diametrically opposite: Poll leader SYRIZA promises to cancel the ENFIA and even write off bad loans, while ruling New Democracy acknowledges the difficulties but is avoiding raising issues that would generate problems and fiscal consequences."

Well, yesterday we got some more details on the collapse in tax payments when Kathimerini reported that indeed as feared, Greek tax remittances have plunged by up to 80% compared to last year, in the process making a mockery of any Greek reforms.

Finance Ministry officials believe there will be no problem meeting the targets of the bailout program as far as the general government primary surplus, which amounts to 1.5 percent of gross domestic product for 2014, is concerned. There are, however, worries regarding the 2015 budget, as the year has got off to a terrible start in terms of revenue collections.
www.zerohedge.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">www.zero... hedge.com/news/2015-01-15/greek-bank-runs-have-begun-two-greek-banks-request-emergency-liquidity-assistance

I think maybe to bring attention to this subject three threads is not nearly enough. You should totally spam the board with dozens of them. You will likely get banned, but hey at least you will "get it out there"

I pressed The Post Button Once and Got Three Copies of The Thread. I'm just hoping A Mod Fixes this. I'm honestly not spamming you guys A a reply to: caterpillage

a reply to: caterpillage

It's a forum bug a lot of members are experiencing at the moment.

a reply to: arjunanda

Lol ok, just gettin my sarcastic groove on you know

Feels like the Greeks have a bank problem every other week now. Is there really anything left of Greece now?

I'm sure our Owners will find A Nice Private Island each and send The Greek People off to some other Euro Country to work for Minimum Wage while they keep enough Greeks around as servants to pleasure their every Desire. Hey Greeks get with it and just imprison the Banker Scum who have destroyed your country and institute rules about foreigners owning property and then charging you exorbitant rents for what was formerly yours before you were lent lots of digital money made up out of thin air (Not Real). IOW just say NO to The B*st*rds and Tell Them To Eff Off Peace Arjunanda. a reply to: ObjectZero

Well ObjectZero, It now looks like it has spread to all The Major Banks in Greece (soon into other eurozone countries)

The Greek Bank Run Spreads To All Four Largest Bankswww.zerohedge.com... un-spreads-all-four-largest-banksa reply to: ObjectZero

Text While moments ago Greece was downgraded by that paragon of analytical and timing virtue, Fitch, to a negative outlook from stable, that is largely meaningless for a nation, devoid of tax revenues and increasingly deposits, which is suddenly imploding at an ever-faster motion.

What is relevant is that following yesterday's report that two Greek banks had suffered sufficiently material deposit withdrawals to force them to apply for the unpopular and highly stigmatizing Emergency Liquidity Assistance program with the ECB, now the other two of Greece's largest banks have also succumbed to reserve depletion after the Greek bank run appears to have gone viral. As Greek Capital.gr reports, now all four Greek banks have requested ELA assistance from the same ECB president who earlier today is said to have unceremoniously kicked out Greece from the ECB's QE program.

As a reminder, this is what we learned yesterday via Kathimerini:

Two Greek systemic banks reportedly submitted the first requests to the Bank of Greece for cash via the emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) system on Thursday, in response to the pressing liquidity conditions resulting from the growing outflow of deposits as well as the acquisition of treasury bills forced onto them by the state.

Banks usually resort to ELA when they face a cash crunch and do not have adequate collateral to draw liquidity from the European Central Bank, their main funding tool. ELA is particularly costly as it carries an interest rate of 1.55 percent, against just 0.05 percent for ECB funding.

The requests by the two lenders will be discussed by the ECB next Wednesday.
And now this, from Capital.gr, google translated:

All four banks in request precautionary ELA

People at the Bank of Greece confirmed that it has submitted a request from the four banks to provide liquidity through the ELA and the Bank of Greece, in the prescribed procedure, has informed the European Central Bank. Not specified amount of requests.

To the question of why Capital.gr requested liquidity through "national" ELA and not by the ECB, despite what has been interrupted and remains active financing from Frankfurt, no details were given. Note that all four Greek systemic banks open until February 28 the ECB funding to guarantee Greek government securities.

The provision of liquidity by ELA is significantly "more expensive" than the ECB, which remains less than 0.5%. The difference between the two mechanisms is that in the case of ELA guarantees can use banks are almost all assets of the loan portfolio, while the ECB needed Greek government securities.

It should however be noted that banks also have bonds of the EFSF by the recapitalization which of course no bank wants to "spend" in moments of uncertainty, preferring to exploit even at higher cost securities loans can not use EDU easy neither the ECB nor the capital market.

Earlier, the Bank of Greece rounds had confirmed the information that already two Greek banks have resorted precautionary liquidity in ELA. The representative of the National Bank, Dimitris Spyropoulos, speaking at Capital.gr said earlier that the National Bank has not had recourse to ELA and does not plan to appeal.

The request of the Greek banks will be discussed next Thursday on the ECB Governing Council in Frankfurt. Information indicates that one of the banks turned to the ELA not participated in the auction of Treasury bills held Tuesday.

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Hey UBJ, Now is when The Rubber hits The Road. We'll just have to see if Syriza is bought off or if they really mean what they say. Cause it looks like they've won the election there in Greece Big Time. Good Reply and A Star for you Peace, Arjunanda a reply to: theultimatebelgianjoke