ECB said to see Greek banks coping to Wednesday without more aid

The European Central Bank reckons Greece’s financial system can survive until at least after Tuesday’s summit of European leaders without an injection of extra liquidity, people familiar with the matter said.

The Governing Council may consider keeping the existing 88.6-billion-euro ($98.1 billion) assistance in place long enough to judge if Greece and its creditors can come any closer to agreeing on the country’s debt financing, the people said. The council is due to hold a conference call at 6 p.m. Frankfurt time on Monday, said the people, asking not to be named as the matter isn’t public. An ECB spokesman declined to comment.

The ECB may consider evidence of how political discussions are progressing, including a call of euro-region officials taking place before governors are due to talk, one of the people said. The ECB’s bank-supervision arm is scheduled to hold a telephone conference after the Governing Council call, another person said.

Following Greek voters’ landslide vote on Sunday against bailout terms offered by European Union-led creditors, concern among ECB governors that the country will ultimately default and leave the euro is rising. At the same time, they have so far been unwilling to preempt any political talks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Monday evening. Euro-area finance ministers will convene on Tuesday to prepare for the summit that will take place the same day.

[Bloomberg]