Frankfurt, June 27 (EFE) .- The European Central Bank (ECB) has been all this time the real lifeguard who has kept Greece within the euro, its banks providing the necessary liquidity to not break.
The bankruptcy of the Greek financial system, much more than the accumulation of public debt, would have meant the immediate withdrawal of Greece from the monetary union.
Aside from keeping Greek banks in a kind of assisted ventilation, the ECB has been at the forefront of the profound changes that have requested the architecture of the Eurozone to survive the Greek storm.
In particular, the launch of a program to buy bonds of states with liquidity problems -very questioned and even denounced the courts of Germany and the EU has been instrumental in containing the spread of the financial turmoil and restore confidence in the euro.
The ECB has been supporting Greece in particular through the program provision of emergency liquidity, whereby Greek banks can borrow emergency the Bank of Greece.
The maximum amount that Greek banks may ask the Bank of Greece, prior authorization of the ECB is now approaching 90,000 million.
The support of the ECB has helped the four largest banks in Greece have not already been declared bankruptcy.
The ECB checked daily for a week this amount following the intensification of capital flight and the withdrawal of cash in large amounts of Greek banks for fear that the country may impose ” corralito “and end up leaving the euro area.
The strong deposit outflows from banks do still fear the imposition of capital controls in the country.
The yields unpaid 2014 Greek bonds that the ECB has acquired through the first debt purchase program totaled 1,900 million euros.
The European Central Bank agreed to share the benefits of buying these bonds because did not participate in the restructuring of Greek private sector debt, as it would have been state funding.
The ECB and the central banks of the euro area began buying in May 2010, under the chairmanship of Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet, Greek sovereign debt that he could not be financed on the market at reasonable rates of interest.
The monetary institution has acquired, through this first program to buy debt bonds Greeks for a nominal value of 19,800 million euros and accounting for 18,100 million euros and an average maturity of 3.5 years.
Although shopping has already stopped in March, this program ended in September 2012, when the ECB decided to start a second program to buy debt, which has never come to apply but it served to curb speculation in the market, which then penalized Spain and Italy.
Two months before the end of July, the ECB president, Mario Draghi, announced in London that the company was willing to do whatever was necessary to save the euro and “believe me, it will be enough,” Draghi said.
His words were enough to ease tension and give a respite to the risk premiums of the peripheral countries.
Since March this year the ECB and national central banks buy large amounts of public debt countries in the eurozone, but Greece is excluded from this program.
Athens must pay to the ECB in July and August 6.700 million.
The Bundesbank (German central bank ) has opposed all programs purchase of sovereign debt because it is considered a form of state funding, which the ECB is prohibited.
That discrepancy resigned in April 2011 the then president of the Bundesbank Axel Weber and in 2012 the ECB chief economist Jürgen Stark.
The objections of the German central bank to the way the ECB leads the Greek crisis have not disappeared.
current president of the Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann said on Thursday that the dependency of financial institutions in emergency liquidity from the Bank of Greece’s solvency questions of fact.
“It should be clear to all parties in the current negotiations that the Eurosystem (composed of the national central banks of the euro area and the ECB) should not provide bridge financing to Greece, even in anticipation of subsequent payments, “said Weidmann.
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