After weeks of Greece’s request for assistance, the European Central Bank has gone ahead and approved a 68 billion euro ($78 billion), two-week extension on emergency liquidity for Greek banks.
The ECB had already raised the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) cap to about 65 billion euros last Thursday. The Greek central bank had requested an extension of about 10 billion euros, the source told Reuters.
The added support comes as Greece tries to negotiate a financing deal with its European partners. The country on Thursday will request that the euro zone extend a "loan agreement'' for up to six months, though Germany has said that no such deal is on the table and Athens must abide by the terms of its existing international bailout.
According to a Reuters report, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told reporters separately on Wednesday that he believes euro zone finance ministers will approve the Greek proposal later this week and that Euro zone officials will first consider the Greek loan extension request in a working group on Thursday.
FM Sure of Approval
Varoufakis also told reporters that he feels Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem will approve the proposal during a conference call with financial ministers on Friday.
Debt talks between Greece and its euro zone lenders collapsed on Monday, which raised concern about a possible Geek exit from the euro zone. On one side of the standoff, Greece sees the euro zone as a house of cards, in which a Greek exit would bring down the rest. Germany, on the other, considers the 19 single currency nations as climbers held together by a rope, with Greece as a weak link that may need to be cut loose.
Greece's current bailout plan will expire on Feb. 28.