Relief for Greece as deposits start flowing back into banks
GREEK banks lost €12bn (£8.7bn) of deposits in January, according to figures released yesterday by the country’s central bank.
Nondas Nicolaides, an analyst at ratings agency Moody’s, estimates that up to last week, the banking system lost over €20bn of deposits from the €164bn private sector deposit base it had at the end of November. Some deposits may have started returning to Greek banks after progress was made in negotiations between the government and European officials on Greece’s debt, quelling fears of an exit from the euro.
One senior banker told Reuters that €850bn had returned to the banks this week. However, Nicolaides told City A.M. it “will be very difficult to revert back to their [the banks’] November 2014 [prior to the announcement of local elections] funding and liquidity profiles”.