Greek savers growing more nervous as 'D-Day' approaches

As D-Day* draws nearer, savers in Greece are growing ever more nervous. Reuters is reporting that bank customers have withdrawn an astonishing two billion euros from their accounts over the past three days alone.

Just to put that in context, they were withdrawing about five billion euros a month between October and April, according to the country’s central bank.

Depositors are obviously increasingly sceptical that negotiations between Greece and her creditors will produce a deal and worried that bank accounts could be frozen if Greece is tipped out of the euro.

Surprisingly, alarm amongst investors outside Greece is still pretty muted.

One reason is that the situation is far less serious than it was in 2012 for financial institutions in Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and, indeed, London.

The first Greek bailout channelled money into Greece which then went to paying off banks outside the country.

In other words, debt was moved from private, commercial lenders (mostly banks) to public institutions: the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and other governments of the Eurozone.

Apart from Greek banks, very few lenders outside the country are exposed to Greek government debt – and the threat of default.

So that’s why you won’t find big banks withdrawing cash from Greece to stuff under the mattress, they’ve already got it.

*Drachma-Day, the not-yet-officially-on-the-cards moment when Greece reintroduces its own currency