ECB maintains ELA funding; doesn’t raise ceiling

Cash withdrawals over the weekend won’t apparently been replenished

 

The European Central Bank has decided to maintain its Emergency Liquidity Support towards the Greek banking system, although no extra liquidity was provided.

In a statement, the ECB said its board decided to maintain the ELA ceiling at Friday’s limit of 89 billion euros.

The half-full, half-empty measure means that the ECB won’t cover cash withdrawn from Greek banks over the weekend, as the Tsipras government’s call for a referendum sent swarms of depositors to ATMs and over their keyboards to utilize web-banking accounts.

The full ECB statement reads:

“The Governing Council of the European Central Bank today welcomed the commitment by ministers from euro area Member States to take all necessary measures to further improve the resilience of euro area economies and to stand ready to take decisive steps to strengthen Economic and Monetary Union.

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.

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 Governing Council stands ready to reconsider its decision.”

On his part, ECB President Mario Draghi stated:

“We continue to work closely with the Bank of Greece and we strongly endorse the commitment