ECB boss’s tongue notice to Greece – Swedish Dagbladet

Greek bank shares fall sharply after Mario Draghi’s statement that Greece has not yet met the conditions for the taking the extra cheap ECB loans. Photo: Michael Probst / AP

Cold shower came after an ECB meeting in Vienna. Greek bank stocks fall sharply on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Bank of Piraeus shares drop 3.7 percent, while National Bank of Greece shares fall 3.9 percent.

Many analysts had after the line of controversial austerity decisions in the parliament in Athens in may anticipated that the ECB would ease the requirements and give the exception of Greek government bonds, which since last year may no longer be used as collateral for cheap liquidity loans in the ECB.

But to , an exception should be envisaged, Greece must first get a clear contingency plan for the coming year, according to Draghi. In it, there should be a series of austerity decisions, to be carried out automatically if the objectives of the third support program for the bankrupt country would not be achieved.

Instead of ECB loans with government securities as collateral, Greece’s financial market since the years had to replenish liquidity in the financial system of special emergency loans, which cost 1.0-1.5 percentage points more than the regular and much cheaper liquidity loans that the ECB provides other euro countries.