Greek banks are reopening today after a forced three-week closure, but restrictions on cash withdrawals will remain.
In a decree on Saturday, the Greek government kept the daily cash withdrawal limit at 60 euros (US$65), but added a weekly limit. For example, a depositor who does not withdraw cash today can withdraw 120 euros tomorrow, and so on, up to 420 euros per week.
Bank customers will still not be able to cash checks, only deposit them into their accounts, and will not be able to get cash abroad with their credit or debit cards, only make purchases. There are also restrictions on opening new accounts or activating dormant ones.
Photo: Bloomberg
The decree also pushes back by a month, to Aug. 26, the deadline for filing income tax returns.
The decree came on the same day as Greece’s coalition government swore in its new reshuffled Cabinet. Five prominent dissidents from the radical left SYRIZA party, the senior coalition party, were replaced. Four of them had voted against an agreement with Greece’s creditors on Thursday and the fifth had resigned before the vote.
Greece closed its banks beginning on June 29 to prevent a bank run after the European Central Bank (ECB) did not increase emergency funding as Greece’s second bailout expired. After the Greek parliament passed an agreement on Thursday to seek a third bailout and related austerity measures demanded by creditors, the ECB raised its emergency funding to cash-strapped Greek banks.
On Friday, German lawmakers voted 439-119 in favor of opening discussions on Greece’s third bailout and the EU decided to release a short-term loan of 7.16 billion euros to help Greece pay back a loan due today to the ECB.
The Greek Parliament is to vote on further austerity measures on Wednesday.
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