ECB to Keep Emergency Funding to Greek Banks at Current Level

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank made a decision Sunday to keep providing emergency liquidity assistance to the Greek bank sector at the current level, a press release on the ECB website said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — However, the Governing Council of the ECB is ready to reconsider the decision.

"Given the current circumstances, the Governing Council decided to maintain the ceiling to the provision of emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to Greek banks at the level decided on Friday (26 June 2015)."

The ELA to Greece currently stands at around $100 billion.

For the past weeks, the ECB has been granting extra emergency liquidity upon Greece’s requests. ECB’s Sunday decision to keep the emergency funding unchanged would make it harder for Greece to handle cash withdrawals, thus potentially pushing it to introduce withdrawal limits.

Earlier in the day, the BBC reported citing Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis that Greek authorities would consider closing banks on Monday, as well as introducing capital controls. The Greek Finance Ministry denied the reports.

"Following the decision by the Greek authorities to hold a referendum and the non-prolongation of the EU adjustment programme for Greece, the Governing Council declared it will work closely with the Bank of Greece to maintain financial stability," the press release read.

Governor of the Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras said, in his turn, that being a member of the Eurosystem, it "will take all measures necessary to ensure financial stability for Greek citizens in these difficult circumstances."