The European Central Bank (ECB) has introduced secret credit lines to Bulgaria and Romania to avoid fallout from the Greek crisis, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The behind-the scenes arrangements are meant “to convince foreign regulators not to pull the plug on the local subsidiaries of Greek banks” and to reassure Bulgaria and Romania “that the Greek banks there would have funding support throughout the current crisis”.

With close trade and investment links with its southern neighbour and four Greek-owned banks holding about a fifth of the assets of Bulgaria’s banking system, Bulgaria is considered potentially vulnerable to fallout from the Greek crisis. In Romania, Greek lenders own about 12% of the country’s banking assets.

You can read here the FT article “ECB extends secret credit lines to avoid Greece fallout” by Laura Noonan.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!