First Greek bank bailout cash could come before stress test – euro zone source

Greek banks could get a first capital injection soon after a bailout deal is agreed, as much as 10 billion euros, even before the European Central Bank completes a stress test, a euro zone official familiar with the issue said on Monday.

The official, who asked not to be named, said a bank test may not be finished before October but that it was recognized the Greek banks need urgent capital to normalize their operations.

So an initial sum may be allocated even before the ECB can assess the total of how much is actually needed.

The comments suggest that European officials are warming to Greek plans to get cash to banks as soon as possible and at the very latest before the end of the year.

Athens wants to ease capital controls, in place since June, which now limit withdrawals to 420 euros per customer per week.

It also wants to avoid having the recapitalization slip into 2016, at which time new EU regulations would require charges, or haircut, on large depositors, including companies.

The EU has suggested Greek banks may need anything from €10 billion to €25 billion, but the final amount is dependent on stress tests and an asset quality review. These tests will be accelerated, the source said.

Athens and international lenders are making unexpectedly quick progress in talks over an up to 86 billion euro bailout package, aiming to wrap up the deal this month and use the fresh money to repay a bond due to the ECB on Aug 20.

Another source said that the initial instalment must be sufficiently large to shore up confidence and a figure around 10 billion is seen making a psychological impact.

Greece's bank rescue fund injected €25 billion into the four main banks—National Bank, Piraeus, Eurobank and Alpha—in 2013 in exchange for shares, and last year they raised a further €8 billion from international investors. — Reuters

Behind the scenes, Greece and creditors push for breakthrough

ATHENS/BRUSSELS - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke to the leaders of Germany, France and the European Commission by phone on Sunday in an attempt to break the deadlock over a cash-for-reforms deal as time runs out to save Greece from bankruptcy.

After months of wrangling and with anxious depositors pulling billions of euros out of Greek banks, Tsipras's leftist government has signaled a willingness to make concessions in order to unlock 7.2 billion euros in bailout money.

But a day before an emergency summit in Brussels, it is still unclear how far Tsipras, elected in January on a pledge to lift his people out of years of austerity, will yield.

His Syriza party plans a rally in Athens to send "a loud message of resistance" against demands for more cuts and tax hikes in a country battered by years of recession.

But the mood has also hardened in Germany, which has contributed more money than any other country to bailing out Greece. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure from within her ranks not to give in to Greek demands, even if that means contemplating Greece leaving the euro zone.

Athens urgently needs access to funds to avoid defaulting on a 1.6 billion euro IMF loan that falls due at the end of the month. But as the crisis gets pushed from one meeting to the next, each side has put the responsibility on the other's shoulder for finding a deal.

Money has drained out of Greek banks after a breakdown in talks last weekend, and Greece might have to impose capital controls within days if there is no breakthrough.

Tsipras called Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Juncker with the latest Greek offer over the weekend.

"The prime minister presented the three leaders Greece's proposal for a mutually beneficial agreement that will give a definitive solution and not a postponement of addressing the problem," a statement from Tsipras's office said.

His government was holed up in an hours-long cabinet meeting on Sunday. Over the weekend, senior European officials have remained in close contact ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and euro zone leaders on Monday.

"Everyone's talking to everyone," an EU official said. "We're continuing to work informally on a solution."

No to blackmail

For a deal to work, Tsipras will need a solution that is acceptable to his party or else may be pushed to call a snap election or a referendum to secure a mandate for an agreement.

Under the austerity measures imposed by the IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank in two bailouts, Greece's economic output has fallen 25 percent, wages and pensions have been slashed, and one in four Greeks is jobless.

The Greek government has resisted demands for pension cuts or tax rises, arguing that the austerity imposed on the southern European country had made the crisis worse. A senior Syriza lawmaker said on Sunday that previous ideas put forward by Juncker would have led to a "social holocaust".

"Democracy cannot be blackmailed, dignity cannot be bargained," the Syriza party said in a statement on Sunday, announcing its planned protest.

"Workers, the unemployed, young people, the Greek people and the rest of the peoples of Europe will send a loud message of resistance to the alleged one-way path of austerity, resistance to the blackmail and scare-mongering."

European ministers have played down the prospect of a final agreement on Monday but hope a political understanding can be reached in time for a full deal by the end of June.

Merkel's Bavarian allies warned against giving in to Greece, with senior Christian Social Union lawmaker Hans Michelbach saying he saw no realistic chance of an agreement on Monday.

"If the EU lets the government in Athens get away with its intransigence, we can bury the euro," Michelbach said in a statement on Sunday.

"Either Greece declares itself willing for a viable solution or the country must leave the euro. The euro zone could cope with the consequences of a Greek exit," he said. — Reuters