Banks appear reluctant to buy T-bills

Banks appear reluctant to buy T-bills By Ilias Bellos The government is particularly worried ahead of next Monday’s Eurogroup meeting given that if the disbursement of the next bailout tranche is not given the go-ahead, Greece will find itself in an extremely difficult situation. Meanwhile, a few days after the November 12 meeting of eurozone finance ministers Greece will have to repay or rollover a debt of 6.6 billion euros from maturing Treasury bills. The Public Debt Management Agency has already arranged for two T-bill auctions on Tuesday and on November 13, given that those bills mature on November 16. Over the last couple of years Greek banks have been covering these needs of the state and using those bills as collateral in order to obtain liquidity from the Emergency Liquidity Assistance of the Bank of Greece at a cost of 3 percent. Now, however, local credit institutions are reluctant to cover such high amounts. The problem is compounded by the European Central Bank, which requires that a limit is set to the total amount the state has borrowed via T-bills.

ekathimerini.com , Sunday November 4, 2012 (21:00)