Det har stået på i et stykke tid, men tilliden til bankernes overlevelse blandt almindelige borgere i Grækenland og Spanien er nu så lav, at stadig flere trækker deres indestående ud af bankerne.
Endgame for Euro'en og EU?
Fra SpiegelONLINE International:
Following the downgrade of 16 Spanish banks by Moody's, the focus in the euro crisis is back on the banking sector. Greeks are withdrawing hundreds of millions from their accounts, with reports that the same is happening in Spain. Experts are calling on the European Central Bank to step in and prevent full-scale bank runs.
Clearing Out Accounts
Reports began trickling in earlier this week that savers in Greece were withdrawing hundreds of millions of euros from their bank accounts -- the German news agency DPA reported that almost €900 million was withdrawn just on Monday alone. Since then Europe has been seized by the fear of a worst-case scenario in Greek's banking system: a so-called bank run, as customers who have lost confidence in their banks rush to take out their savings.
Such a run would be the final stage in the loss of confidence in the banks. For months now, wealthy individuals in crisis-hit countries have already been moving billions of euros abroad out of fears about the stability of the financial systems in their own countries. Until recently, however, there had been few signs of abnormal behavior in terms of ordinary savers withdrawing cash.
The reason a bank run is so feared is because it could land every bank in the world in trouble -- even the healthiest ones. The banking system depends on the fact that banks only hold a small portion of customer deposits in cash that is ready to pay out. The rest is invested or passed on to other customers as loans.
Now, rumors are circulating that in Spain, too, people have begun to clear out their accounts at certain banks. The newspaper El Mundo reported that customers had withdrawn over €1 billion from the beleaguered major savings bank Bankia last week. The government in Madrid has denied the report, but the situation remains tense. On Friday, the Spanish newspaper Expansion reported that the US investment bank Goldman Sachs has now been tasked with providing an independent assessment of the problem bank.
