Greek businesses and savers have been hauling their money out of the country’s banks at a rate not seen since the 2012 summer.
Speculation swirled at that time and again at this of a potential default or exit from the eurozone, making the markets jittery.
Around €4 billion has been removed from Greek bank accounts this month, according to reports.
An executive at one of the banks told the Wall Street Journal that the move was “strictly on a precautionary basis”.
As a consequence two of the country’s largest banks have applied to the Greek central bank for emergency liquidity assistance to keep them running.
Greek banks first applied for ELA in 2011, and only exited the programme in May last year.
Crucial elections will be held on 25 January and the anti-austerity party, Syriza, is leading in opinion polls.
Its leader, Alexis Tsipras, wants to write off some of Greece’s debt while remaining in the eurozone. Nevertheless, his policies are sufficiently different to warrant reservation among his fellow eurozone member states, and with Germany in particular.
Greece’s Eurobank and Alpha Bank both applied for ELA, with other banks expected to follow. Their approach was to Greece’s central bank rather than the European Central Bank because they simply did not have the collateral to finance loans.
Nevertheless, the ECB will have to give approval for the emergency funding.
