ATHENS (Sputnik) – Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has dismissed media reports of planned "haircuts" of bank deposits of over €8,000 ($8,890) calling them "rumours" spread over fears of a financial collapse.
FT report of a Gk Bank Bail In is a malicious rumour that the Head of the Greek Banks Association denied this morning http://t.co/3xtnQvpS7R
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) July 3, 2015
On Friday, The Financial Times (FT) British daily newspaper published an article saying that Greeks could lose at least 30 percent of funds in deposits of over €8,000.
A similar scenario was implemented in Cyprus in 2013, when "haircuts" were imposed on deposits of over €100,000 ($111,140).
Greece's overall debt is estimated at over $350 billion, most of which is owed to the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The creditors have issued two bailout packages for Greece since 2010.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rejected the creditors’ latest bailout proposal and has announced a nationwide referendum on whether the lenders’ new conditions, which include tough austerity measures, should be accepted in exchange for more financial aid.
The referendum will be held on Sunday.
Greek banks have been closed since Monday and have sufficient liquidity to last until Tuesday, according to the country’s Finance Ministry.
The Greek authorities introduced restrictions on various bank transactions and temporarily shut down local banks last week, after the ECB decided to keep the level of emergency liquidity assistance to the Greek bank sector unchanged.
