Greek banks get behind-the-scenes help from ECB

22 May 2012 by Jim Fickett.

From the Financial Times:

There has been no official announcement. No terms or conditions have been disclosed. But Greece’s banking system is being propped up by an estimated €100bn or so of emergency liquidity provided by the country’s central bank – approved secretly by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. …

The ECB’s guard slipped a little late last month. Its weekly financial statement published on April 24, showed an unexpected €121bn increase in the innocently titled heading “other claims on euro area credit institutions,” …

By scouring ECB and national central bank statements analysts, have since pieced together more details. Analysts at Barclays, for instance, reckon Greece is now using €96bn in ELA [Emergency Liquidity Assistance], with Ireland accounting for another €41bn and Cyprus €4bn. If correct, total ELA in use has exceeded €140bn