The European Central Bank (ECB) plans to allow the Greek central bank to provide as much as 59.5 billion euros (US$68.15 billion) in emergency funding for the nation’s lenders, a eurozone central bank official familiar with the decision said.
The measure is needed after the ECB on Wednesday shut off a key avenue for Greek banks’ funding, citing doubts that the nation’s newly elected government would conclude its aid program. Greek stocks and bonds fell on Thursday after the ECB’s decision to end a waiver on the quality of Greek debt it accepts as collateral.
The offer highlights how ECB officials are warning Greek politicians to keep to eurozone rules while striving to avoid a crisis in the financial system. The ECB approved 50 billion euros in emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) as a replacement for its regular funding, plus an extra 9.5 billion euros, the official said, asking not to be identified because the proceedings are not public.
An ECB spokesman declined to comment. German newspaper Die Welt reported earlier on Thursday that the ECB would allow the Greek central bank to offer about 60 billion euros in ELA.
Under the measure, a nation’s central bank can provide liquidity to lenders at its own risk. The ECB is set to review ELA every two weeks to check whether the funds are being used in a way that does not interfere with monetary policy.
Should the ECB object, “the bank concerned cannot fund itself and that the bank concerned the same day or in the next couple of days would miss a payment and the counterpart will call a bankruptcy,” ECB Governing Council member Klaas Knot said at the Dutch parliament on Thursday.
“So you have a credit event,” he said, while declining to comment specifically on Greece.
The Greek Ministry of Finance said the ECB decision to do away with the waiver does not reflect any negative developments in the financial sector and that banks are “adequately capitalized and fully protected.”
Greek deposits are safe, and the decision to lift the dispensation for junk-rated collateral for Greek banks is something that can be reversed, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras told reporters in Athens on Thursday.
ELA is priced at an annual interest rate of 1.55 percent compared with the current ECB refinancing rate of 0.05 percent, he said in an interview with the Kathimerini newspaper in November.
Greece might run out of funds as early as next month if Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras continues to refuse bailout financing.
Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis met with German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin on Thursday. The two men failed to narrow their differences on how to deal with the Greek debt crisis, with Schaeuble saying they “agreed to disagree.”
Varoufakis disagreed, saying: “We didn’t agree to disagree.”
“We agreed to enter into a discussion for a joint solution for all European partners,” he said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”