SYRIZA threatens Stournaras with accountability

After the BoG director’s recent statements

“In every case responsibilities are great and they must be accounted for”, stated the Financial sector of SYRIZA during a very aggressive statement it released against Bank of Greece director Yannis Stournaras on liquidity in the banks and the Presidential elections.

SYRIZA’s economists clearly suggest that Yannis Stournaras undermines the stability of the banking system, stating that the “central banker must be wary of the protection of the banking system and not undermine its stability, causing an unreasonable panic with his statements, just to cover his own vain ambitions and appear ‘greater than the king'”.

SYRIZA also stresses that “Mr. Samaras’ appointed chosen man showed he is worthy of the trust of the scaremongering Prime Minister and not of the trust of the Greek people, whose interests he brutally undermines”.

According to SYRIZA, Mr. Stournaras’ declaration that “liquidity in the country is quickly decreasing” and that “the threat of an irreversible damage to the Greek economy is great”, “left bankers and the markets speechless not just for the raw interventionism of the ‘independent’ central banker and his stance of support to the government, but to the false description of the real situation of the banking system”.

SYRIZA also notes that “Just a few days ago, the ECB released a stated of a haircut reduction of over 50%, which are applied to the Greek treasury bills and government bonds, giving Greek banks an added liquidity of over 6 billion. At the same time, deposits in Greek banks are at the same, stable level of 163 billion euro and that there is no remarkable reduction in deposits, which is the main basis of liquidity, according to official data.

“The remarkable and surprising fact is that the BoG director made his statements on a day when the stock market was recovering”.

“The independence and the role of the Central Bank, based on its operations manual, and the European system’s statue, directly clash with Mr. Stournaras’ recent direct involvement to politics. These practices are especially dangerous and institutionally unacceptable, since they torpedo the fiscal stability which is the main goal of the European Central Banks”.

“Mr. Stournaras’ statements are directly opposite to the statements of the EU representative. Furthermore, we remind everyone that since the beginning of November, the supervision of the systemic Eurozone banks is the responsibility of the European Central Bank. Therefore, ECB authorities and Mr. Draghi himself should wonder if Stournaras’ statements were made with their say so or not.  If such an intervention surpasses the independence of central banks from political power, and the Eurosystem’s basic role as a guarantor of all banks’ liquidity. Once again, this stratagem of terror found a way to be expressed through the central banker, who, with his incendiary remarks causes damage to the stability of the financial system, which he is supposed to protect”.