Greek banks’ reliance on ELA keeps declining

Emergency central bank funding to Greek lenders fell 5.4 percent, or 2.92 billion euros in July compared to the previous month, Bank of Greece data showed on Thursday.

Banks have relied on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) since February last year after being cut off from the ECB’s funding window due to stalled bailout talks between the government and its official lenders.

Their dependence on the ELA emergency lifeline has declined since late June when the European Central Bank reinstated banks’ access to its cheap funding operations.

Emergency funding, which is more costly than borrowing from the European Central Bank, dropped to 51.45 billion euros at the end of July from 54.37 billion euros at the end of June, the data showed.

[Reuters]