On Thursday, the European Central Bank is ready to take a big step towards the normalization of the Greek bank system. According to the Financial Times, the ECB is ready to start accepting Greek state bonds as collaterals for loans
Greek officials believe that the board of the Central Bank will decide to allow Greek banks to use state bonds as a collateral for capital from the ECB. According to the FT the board of directors is planning to hold that meeting in Vienna next Thursday.
The newspaper stresses that such a decision would be a further support to Greece after the latest Eurogroup where a lightening of the Greek debt was discussed.
In summer 2015, the vice president of the ECB Vitor Constancio said that the board of the bank would accept the Greek bonds in order to finance the Greek banks should there be a credible implementation of the bailout program.
Should the ECB vote for the acceptance of Greek bonds, the banks will be able to access the cheaper ECB capital rather than those from the ELA, which they get via the Bank of Greece and have higher interest rates.