Maria Luís Albuquerque: Athens may have to take steps to … – Jornal de Negócios – Portugal

Maria Luís Albuquerque: Athens may have to take steps to avoid “runaway” in the banking system

The Finance Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque, said Saturday in Brussels that the Greek authorities may have to take steps to avoid “uncontrolled situation” in the country’s banking system.

“There is a set of measures eventually the Greek authorities themselves can take to avoid having a situation of financial uncontrollable. It is a set of measures that only the authorities themselves will take, as indeed there have been examples in other countries, “said Maria Luís Albuquerque at a press conference, after the Eurogroup today and the meeting of ministers that followed, but already without the presence of the Greek Minister Yanis Varoufakis.

The most widely spoken as is the introduction of capital controls in Greece, which has to It is decided by the government and aimed at preventing the exit on a large scale banks’ money, since it is anticipated that further aggravate the flight of deposits before the situation now. This decision may go through limits on withdrawals or international transfers of money.

Cyprus was the only member of the eurozone that has imposed capital controls. They lasted about two years and were imposed when the country requested financial assistance and before getting the agreement with international lenders.

It is also spoken of the possibility Greek banks are closed temporarily on Monday, but the Greek Government has denied that possibility.

Another issue on the table has to do with the funding of Greek banks, which have remained with liquidity thanks to the European Central Bank’s emergency line (ECB) .

So far, the ECB president, Mario Draghi, had managed to convince the Board of Governors to keep the emergency money from Greece because the country, despite the difficulties, was supported by a rescue program. However, this program ends next Tuesday (June 30) and the European partners refused on Saturday, extend it

A meeting of the Board of Governors of the ECB. – Which includes the six members directory of the institution and the 19 governors of the central banks of the eurozone countries – should take place this Sunday to decide precisely on the maintenance to Greek banks for emergency loans

On Friday night, the. Eurogroup was surprised by the decision of the Greek Government to hold a referendum on July 5, so that the Greek people decide whether to accept or not the proposed agreement by creditors.

This a few days to finish the program rescue, next Tuesday, when it expires the period within Greece repay almost 1,600 million euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), so that no money should go into default (‘default’).

The Portuguese Minister of Finance also said on Saturday told reporters that the Eurogroup will make a “permanent monitoring” the situation in Greece and the euro zone after what happened in the last hours and is ready to meet as soon as necessary. “We’re all a little prevention,” said Maria Luís Albuquerque.

The case of infection

As for a possible contagion to other euro zone countries , including Portugal, the ruling dismissed, reiterating that the country now has “a very comfortable financial cushion” for “several months”. He also said that there are more tools today to deal with these situations than before the crisis and that both the EU and the ECB have mechanisms “can be triggered should this be justified.”

Still , admitted that there is “any disturbance to the markets” face to break in the negotiations with Greece as it is a “situation that has never been experienced before.”