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As Bank Run Accelerates, Greek Depositors Pray To Saint Mario
As we have consistently shown over the past month, the battle between Greece and the Eurozone is all about leverage, and specifically who has more of it. Furthermore, as we laid it out previously, the best way to quantify this duel of leverage is through two easily observable metrics: the level of Eurozone risk asset prices (if Greek contagion fears were dominant, the Eurostoxx would be tumbling), and the pace of deposit outflows from Greek banks (if the Greeks fear the ECB is about to yank all money they would pull their cash from the bank, in the process forcing Tsipras and Varoufakis to the negotiating table willing to sign anything Europe throws at them).
ECB leverage measured in Greek ATM lines;
Greek leverage measured inversely in the level of the Stoxx 50
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 5, 2015
Which is why in a Eurozone in which all price levels are now controlled by the ECB, it is not surprising that no amount of huffing and puffing has managed to derail the Stoxx or the Dax even briefly from their relentless surge to all-time highs.
But one thing was missing: a flush of Greek deposits outflows, despite the "best wishes" of the ECB and the Eurogroup to achieve just that, as photos of lines of people desperate to withdraw their cash from Greek ATMs would promptly lead to a collapse of all negotiating leverage Greece has, and promptly put it in its place... at the very bottom of the European "democratic" food chain.
As such, it was only a matter of time before stories citing anonymous source "who asked not to be identified because the information is private" emerged, warning that finally the Greek bank run has arrived, even if one can't actually document it with actual ATM lines.
And sure enough, here is Bloomberg reporting that "deposit withdrawals picked up after talks between Greece and its euro-area creditors on extending its bailout ended in acrimony in Brussels Monday night, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private."
Any questions whether these "sources" originate at the ECB, Germany or Dijsselbloem's office will remain unanswered indefinitely.
So once that strawman is set, the rest writes itself: bank runs, deposit outflows, funding shortfalls, banks crawling to the PM office demanding he succumb to ECB demands just so they can continue operating one more day, everyone else praying to Saint Mario to be merciful, etc.
Stournaras meets European Central Bank Governing Council colleagues in Frankfurt tomorrow as Greek banks exhaust their current allocation of emergency funds, the three people said.
The lenders, unable to tap investors for funds, are bleeding deposits amid uncertainty over their country’s future in the euro area and concern capital controls might be used to stem outflows. Banks are being kept afloat through the Emergency Liquidity Assistance lifeline extended by the Bank of Greece, subject to approval by the ECB. The ELA pool, which currently stands at 65 billion euros ($74 billion), is extended to solvent lenders as a temporary measure to cover liquidity shortages.
Which means that as soon as tomorrow, the Greek funding situation may go from simmering to a full-blown inferno, if the ECB accelerates its plan to induce a forced bank run in Greece and yanks the Greek banks' access to Emerging Liquidity during tomorrow's non-monetary policy meeting in Frankfurt:
"The ECB will likely provide ELA to Greek banks as long as there is a chance of an agreement between Greece and its creditors to extend the current bailout, economists at Barclays Plc including Antonio Garcia Pascual and Thomas Harjes wrote in a client note after the meeting ended Monday. If Greek authorities don’t take up euro area finance ministers’ offer this week, ELA funds to Greek banks would likely be shut down, they wrote."
Sadly for Greece, the ECB is hardly in a generous mood. As Kathimerini reported, the Frankfurt institution is now prepared to fight the Greek government over bank appointments! The European Central Bank (ECB) has issued a terse warning to Greek banks, and particularly to the government in Athens, via its Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), over plans to overhaul lenders’ management. In a letter to Greek banks, the SSM stressed that any changes to their management can be implemented only after receiving the SSM’s approval.
The letter emphasized that all candidates for the top position in each bank would have to go through an interview before the SSM can give its approval.
The letter reached the banks a few hours before a scheduled board meeting at National Bank, which was expected to address the issue of management changes. The meeting did not take place after all, with National Bank sources attributing the postponement to technical reasons rather than to the letter.
Sources, however, said that it was the government’s insistence to move ahead with changes in National’s administration – though it does not have the right to do so according to recapitalization rules and the bank’s current share structure – that provoked the ECB’s reaction. One of the names said to be slated for the top spot at National is former Economy Minister Louka Katseli, with Giorgos Michelis as chief executive. The ECB is said to have certain objections toward Katseli.
In short: anyone betting that tomorrow the ECB will extend the Greek last-ditch source of liquidity no questions asked, may want to not hold their breath. And once Greek ELA access is withdrawn, well... Cyprus was called a "blueprint" for a reason.
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Mario aint no saint.
Cut off the ELA already.
Not only will Greek sovereign debt start exploding in all directions, but I can only imagine the derivatves attached to the Greek banks themselves.
The only praying I ever do is to the porcelain god after reading articles about Draghi & Bernanke
They'll wait until next week for Capital Controls and Levies -- as its after payday, and I would bet my bottom dollar that large institutions are keeping cash outside of Greece right now until just before payday when they will transfer it in.
Then again, Cap Controls and whatnot are the perogative of the Greek government and not the ECB, so this could end up being Kamakazie economics.
Step one: Check that your EURO banknotes serial number doesn't start with a Y. Y are the ones issued by Greece.
Greece stops this dead by nationalizing the banks and firiing or arresting the bankers. No need for bank runs or a Cyprus.
The fun of bank runs is just beginning in Eurozone (where 28 unequal partners are married to each other in a monetary experiment and claim that all is well - in the asylum).
In Cyprus, 2 cars of the Bank of Cyprus CEO were burnt and vandalized last night, mostly by aggrieved investors.
ARSON: Bank of Cyprus CEO’s car burnt, second damaged
Secondly, desperate people in all EU countries who have maintained undeclared accounts in neighbouring countries such as Andorra or Switzerland or Liechenstein or wherever else but are undeclared are extremely worried and taking desperate measures to get their hands on the money before the taxman does.
This will cause bank runs across Eurozone starting from Switzerland but could be Andorra or Luxembourg or anywhere. Swiss banks have 4 to 5 times their annual GDP just in the assets of a few banks. If they leave, which they will, it will cause an earthquake in Switzerland which I predict in 2015 or latest 2016.
People's desperate actions are showing......Woman, 65, smuggles banknotes in shoes
As far as Switzerland is concerned, they say paper money and paper profits are turning into the proverbial dust in their top notch Private banks. This came in the FT, 2 days ago.
Banks dismantle ‘strings of pearls’ as they turn to dust
Last April, it started with money taped to genitals, now it has reached a level below, to the foot.....how low can people go? :)
Elderly man taped €200,000 to his genitalsA Greek was forced to surrender EUR 500k which he withdrew in cash and wanted to smuggle out of Cyprus just 2 weeks ago.
Greek forced to surrender €500,000 at Cyprus customsThe Euros that are flooding Swiss banks are converted into CHF accounts, no? Swiss banks don't have to worry about outflows. Private Swiss banks are private and unless the Swiss government steps in and starts digging into the bank secrecy laws, there is nothing to worry about. Swiss banks are still safest on the planet on par or better than Singapore.
Dubai? Not sure, why don't you tell us about Dubai.
Walkure,
Your information on conversion of money into CHF in Swiss banks is inaccurate. Anyone can hold money in Swiss banks in any currency. Most do so in USD because USD is popular and provides maximum number of investment products.
CHF is held by few people but because all lending is in CHF hence banks end up having CHF deposits or CHF bonds. All major currencies can be held in Switzerland like CAD, AUD, GBP, JPY, USD, CHF, DKK etc.
Swiss Parliament is at the last stage of passing a law and ALL info will be provided to any country who cares to enquire. Privacy of Swiss banks is dead which is why there is chaos in Swiss banks. From 400 Swiss banks in 2000, we are down to 280 in 2015. RBC, Stanchart and Morgan Stanely are just 3 to have shut in last few weeks.
Swiss banks are the weakest in the world.
Credit Suisse has just been downgraded to BBB and is now at par with India or Spain or Kazakhstan, if you like!
Dubai is doing very well and does not allow much rickety stuff. Money laundering nerve centres are in NY and London for decades and laundry is dried in Switzerland too. Dubai has banned non residents to open accounts a few years ago and has closed thousands of Iranian accounts unfortunately. Cash transactions are rarely allowed. Cannot deposit cash in ANY bank unless can show receipt of withdrawal. Things have been over tightened and many foreign banks like ABN, Lloyds, RBS, Barclays, EFG and various Swiss banks have quit in the last year or three due to weak business and thus local banks are much stronger and are expanding globally.
Dubai is booming and is quite stable despite the oil correction because unbenownst to billions, Dubai's economy gets close to 50% of its GDP from tourism / conference / leisure sector and is the only city in the world to have doubled its population since 2004 and has increased its number of hotels by 1,000% since 1990 and has the privilege to have the highest hotel occupancy on the planet among any major city over the last year and two!
been checking here in Greece after bwithdrawing and I cant find any, all the notes that I've taken are German X notes, maybe all the y's are already in matresses
Maybe the bank of Greece has confiscated Y notes and is already printing New Drachma?
The ECB is playing with matches while sitting in the tinder box. People who are not pliant tend to do the unexpected. The ECB is taking a big gamble that Greece won't just up and follow through with their threats.
There is pretty good analogy in NNT's 'Black Swan of Cairo' to the present situation. Suppression of natural order events only leads to stability for a while, and even then it's only the appearance of stability. When the 'event' finally does show up it's much worse than anticipated.
Greek depositors haven't heard about Cyprus and they haven't read the IMF quarterly report from Fall '13 "Taxing Times" in which the fund states,
Greeks have already had a yearly one off levy, called solidarity tax
Greek banks in trouble, only because they agreed to align themselves in failed monetary experiment. Now the PR starts about "greek depositors in trouble". lmao. Not if they prepared for the inevitable, which will sweep the globe soon. Seems to me depositors that divested away from the banks are in good shape. Sucks to be a banker tho.
Hello BRICS Bank, Greece calling. I think we can do some business.
And Vladimir, would you like to rent a port in the Mediterranean - the water's warm this time of year still - and deep enough too.
1-800-GET-ME-SUM-VLAD
paging Vlad, please pick up the red courtesy phone
I've been praying the last 3 weeks that Greeks get their money the hell outta Greek banks before they get Cyprused. I figure they got maybe a couple days left before capital controls are instituted. This is not the kind of line you want to be standing near the end.
Long molotov's and rubber tires!
so even if there are capital controls, you ae not yet Cyprus'd .. though the risk goes up of getting Drachma'd!
Fuck Mario, print your own currency and back it with your own assets!!!!!
Stupid fucks. Should have turned all those paper promises into real wealth when they had the chance.
When the end is imminent even the hardest of atheists pray to God, before the looming, encroaching shadow of the great unknown.
Such is human nature.
And nothing is more akin to God's wordly power than that of a bank account. Dominus et Mercator.
For the atheists, it won't really matter if they pray or not, they don't have a faith in anything but themselves. It will be gnashing of teeth for them.
Unix, speaking as an aetheist I for one will not be gnashing my teeth. I will be jumping for joy when this house of fraud comes tumbling down. Good luck surviving with no preparation other than a prayer.
bwahahahaha, you assume much, just like your faith in only yourself. I am prepared my atheist friend, very prepared! I also have a shield in God, something you'll never have...munch on!
btw, your gnashing of teeth won't start until AFTER you die.
God bless ya tho, I'll say a prayer for you atheists tonight, one that will hopefully bring you some light to your life!
Right on schedule. Good chance that this read is true and that the "White Chimp" will be getting it's way with the TPP after all!
Question remains...
Do you have another epic "false flag" event before the USDs collapse?... Or do you just crush the dollar and let Americans go ape shit enforcing martial law through the NDAA to clamp down on them first?!!!
I'm thinking the latter is probably easier to do using the U.S. military in this capacity to wipe out the population domestically who's labor costs will never be competitive again rather than starting WWIII with Russia!
Certainly is a lot less messy and won't require the use of nuclear weapons worldwide!
I am not sure, nemo, depends on how the 'army' breaks...if there is a 50-50 split, we the people stand a chance, otherwise, not so much. I am of the camp...Molon Labe!
I don't think they will need a false flag, to tell the truth, they have many things to blame the crash on already...even the weather! People are so gullible these days, imagine that, in the information age to boot!
"I'm thinking the latter is probably easier to do using the U.S. military in this capacity to wipe out the population domestically who's labor costs will never be competitive again rather than starting WWIII with Russia!"
Hahahaha, BWAAAAAAAhahahaha........(catches breath)
asymmetric conflict with their own armed to the teeth pissed off civilians. Yea, let them go on believing it will be a cake walk.
Hope their wife and kids can be sheltered in place with a pair of scissors too.
less than 10% on Americans participated in last active rebelion against the worlds largest military.
Ain't gonna happen cause THEY ran the numbers, and THEY are all bullshit and vapor, the GREAT AND MIGHTY OZ behind the curtain until a 4 pound dog pulled the curtain back. yap yap
true booboo, but they didn't have Abrahms M1 tanks, A10 warthogs, hellfire missles, etc etc back then, they were somewhat evenly matched. Unless you know a few good people with those weapon systems, hahaha. if the army breaks against us (which i doubt), then we will be truly under seige!
Molon Labe!
Afghanistan. Iraq. Viet Nam.
There will be no war on the populace. It will be a slow roll to the turn key police state. Why attack when you can walk us into pens, which we already have a foot inside the door?
Rebel, I'd say to them, good luck with that shit! They won't be walking me anywhere.
They only need most in the door.
....they'd be swiss cheese, but then again so would I...cold dead hands don't ya know!
How would you like your boiled frog?
I'm not saying boo that this would necessarily happen but you have to understand how the George Soros', Rockefeller's and Rothschild's think.
Last you checked... How much of America is owned by America these days?!!! China has been buying up depreciated agriculture and industrial land in the midwest at fire sale prices without any competition or bidding for it to other thrid parties! Why is that???...
Everything is a bargaining chip to them. And if they can neutralize the most expensive thing on the menu which is and has been American labor and it's union(s) it's best to clean house now and make a deal with your future business associates that are multilingual, highly educated and are cheap by comparison to the fatted calves in North America!
Maybe the shit we're seeing in the Middle East and Ukraine is to get the price they want before North America gets handed over?...
Then again boo... You may be right!
Being forced into accepting half of a loaf instead of the "whole" may be too much for these old very evil greediest of mo-fo(s) that have had too much of everything for far too long!
If that's the case we will all lose. And best of all. So will they!!!
Let's a go, Mario carta....
Gold backed Drachma. Let europe eat shit.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_reported_gold_hol...
So speaking of Bankers deaths do thier wives count ?
NH Fish and Game Department officials said the body of Kate Matrosova, 32, of New York City, was found between Mt. Madison and Mt. Adams in an area near Star Lake.Officials said Matrosova's husband dropped her off at 5 a.m. Sunday at the base of the mountains. She planned to hike the summit of Mt. Madison and continue through Mt. Adams, Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Washington.
Kate Matrosova, a New York-based credit trader for France’s BNP Paribas SA,
Charlie Farhoodi, a vice president at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. Husband
Did Kate's husband drop her off at the base of the mountains from the summit?
Saint Mario won't be there for the Greeks.
But when Deutsch Bank and Societie General are fearful of Greek losses Super Mario will save the day with the Germans' blessing.
I have 3 bank accounts - two checking - one savings.
In total I keep less than 1% of my net worth in them - combined -
I understand no place is totally safe - but only a fool would have significant deposits sitting in a Greek bank account.
Maybe the reason there is no bank run is because no one has much on deposit. Keep just enough to pay your bills - transfer in just enough to avoid fees.
Too few people in the world understand what Fractional Reserve Banks really are.
If they did, they would keep - at best - only speculative money there, or the minimum needed to make recurring payments.
Their deposits disappear in a flash time and again... and still they don't understand how the money in their 'savings' account keeps disappearing.
HINT: It actually disappeared around the time you deposited it. Banks are simply sophisticated thieves who gamble with your money in such a way that you likely PAY THEM FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF GAMBLING, where you assume all the risks of the gamble and the bank assumes most or all profits.
That is actually, factually, and provably a precisely true statement.
Why the hell are you carrying a balance in a bank?????
Why criticising the Greeks ? Money is much better under the bed than in a bank tehese days. Besides, Tsipras will have the perfect pretext to nationalize greek Banks, thus getting an important tool for recovering (at least) part of Greece's sovereignty (step by step)
Why criticising the Greeks ? Money is much better under the bed than in a bank tehese days. Besides, Tsipras will have the perfect pretext to nationalize greek Banks, thus getting an important tool for recovering (at least) part of Greece's sovereignty (step by step)
Icesave collapsed and I got my money back, no problem.
We should let more banks collapse.
Yea, but the only thing you had to offer in exchange was hot springs and cod fish plus you threw bankers in the clink.
Batman11, when you say you got your money back do you know where the money came from to pay you back? (serious question, not a piss-take). Was it from the assets of the failed bank, from a deposit insurance type organisation or from the government?
This is just an element of the pressure the eurocrats are applying to the Greek goverment. The EE is really begging Greece to please kick the can as far down the road as possible. What a reversal of roles! A couple of years ago it was the then Greek govrment bending over backwards for the chance to have a go at kicking the can.
From the moment the eurocrats gave Mario the go ahead to QE (tranforming quantum emptiness into money) they can not really expect the Greeks or the rest of the "bailed out" europeans to go through with the destruction of their livelihoods. It looks like this is the end of the road for the can...
"We want out, but we still want your money. Can we have both?"
yes you can, its just a click away
You can have your cake and eat it too. You just need 2 cakes.
Bitcoin seems to be a clear answer to currency transition troubled times.
I've posted this on another article but shares in the worlds biggest printer of bank notes are up 5% (De La Rue), in a market up 0.6%, in a sector up by 0.02%. Some money at least is better a bank note printer might be about to recieve a big order.
Shares in Deutsche Bank, with $75tn of derivatives, of which around 0.5% are allegedly linked to Greece, shares are down 1.7%.
Saint Mario has a nice ring to it - and he would be the 1st Saint named "Mario" in the Roman Catholic collection of 810 saints!
But Banking is already covered: Saint Matthew is the patron saint of Salerno, Italy, bankers and tax collectors Maybe he can be the Saint of the Eurozone.
I'm sorry Saint Mario, but the Drachma is in another castle!
Better Call Vlad
stop stirring the pot tyler, people in Greece are worried but are not freaking out and there are certainly no great lines at ATMS
so fuck off with your propaganda
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_17/02/2015_547369
"Greece is going ahead with reform measures in defiance of its bailout obligations, with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras calling Tuesday for parliament to vote on a series of social reform bills at the end of the week.
The vote is scheduled to take place Friday, the same day as a controversial deadline imposed by Greece's eurozone partners at talks that collapsed in Brussels on Monday.
"We will not succumb to psychological blackmail," Tsipras said following a dramatic showdown in Brussels which saw his finance minister reject a deal which hinged on an extension to the country’s bailout program.
Saint Mario better have a golden egg laying goose...
To all Greek citizens:
It isn't sufficient to withdraw your funds in Greek Euros or to transfer the balances to other Euro area banks. Every single account opened by a Greek citizen is going to carry an asterisk which designates it as possibly non-Euro for capital control purposes. Any cash you withdraw from a Greek bank already can be identified as Greek, and if Grexit occurs, they won't be treated like other Euros. Plan accordingly.
don't say it too loud, people may wake up