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ECB cancels soft treatment of Greek debt in warning to Athens  John O'Donnell and Jan Strupczewski

(Reuters) - The European Central Bank abruptly canceled its acceptance of Greek bonds in return for funding on Wednesday, shifting the burden onto Athens' central bank to finance its lenders and isolating Greece unless it strikes a new reform deal.

The move, which means the Greek central bank will have to provide its banks with tens of billions of euros of additional emergency liquidity in the coming weeks, was a response to what many in Frankfurt see as the Greek government's abandoning of its aid-for-reform program.

The decision came just hours after Greece's new finance minister Yanis Varoufakis emerged from a meeting with ECB President Mario Draghi to claim that the ECB would do "whatever it takes" to support member states such as Greece.


I can only hope that Greece imposes capital controls or extends closure of the banks on Tuesday. Greece could remain on the Euro, but obviously could not service its bond debt. Athens should contest this move with the appropriate European legal authorities. Draghi just answered the question of whether the ECB would play hardball politics with the currency.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sun Feb 22nd, 2015 at 01:15:29 PM EST
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It is, in these matters, usually helpful to check the date on the article.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun Feb 22nd, 2015 at 01:36:43 PM EST
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Additionally to what Jake said decisions on these matters are taken by the governing council and not Draghi.
by generic on Sun Feb 22nd, 2015 at 01:41:52 PM EST
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You reply to a report from February 20 with a news story from February 10, which is rather unhelpful. What happened here was that 10 days after the ECB declared Greek sovereign debt ineligible for refinancing, Draghi went to the Eurogroup and banged a few heads together to avert an immediate Greek bank meltdown and a soft Grexit, which apparently some of the finance ministers were pining for.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Feb 22nd, 2015 at 01:48:44 PM EST
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