Capital controls and Bank Run in Greece

Greece crisis deepens as banks close for a week after weekend that shook euro

Greece’s government says banks will stay closed until after snap referendum, while stock exchange shut on Monday and cash machine withdrawals limited

the Guardian,

28 June, 2015

Report from Guardian cжrrespondant, Helena Smith

On Monday morning Greeks will find their savings blocked and their banks closed for a week following a fateful weekend that has shaken Europe’s single currency.

The Greek government decided on Sunday night it had no option but to close the nation’s banks the following day after the European Central Bank (ECB) raised the stakes by freezing the liquidity lifeline that has kept them afloat during a six-month run on deposits.

The Athens Stock Exchange will not reopen on Monday either. The dramatic move, after 48 hours of sensational developments in Greece’s long-running battles with creditors, was sparked by the country’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras’s Friday night call for a referendum on its creditors’ demands. That prompted finance ministers of the eurozone to effectively put an end to his country’s five-year bailout by the International Monetary Fund, the ECB and the European commission.

In a brief, televised address to the nation, Tsipras threw the blame onto the leaders of the eurozone. But he did not say how long the banks would remain shut, nor did he give details of how much individuals and companies would be allowed to withdraw once they reopened.

Greek crisis: Banks shut for a week as capital controls imposed - as it happened

Greek banks will not open until July 7 in an attempt to avoid financial panic, after ECB capped the emergency funds keeping them running

It later emerged that the banks would be kept shut until after the referendum on 5 July and there were reports that the withdrawals from cash machines would be limited to €60 – about £40.

The prime minister said that Saturday’s move by the eurozone’s finance ministers to halt Greece’s bailout programme was unprecedented. He called it “a denial of the Greek public’s right to reach a democratic decision”.

Tsipras added that the finance ministers’ initiative had prompted the ECB to curb its assistance, forcing the government to take the steps that it had. He said he had once again appealed for an extension of the bailout until after the referendum, on 5 July, sending his proposal to the president of the European council, Donald Tusk, the leaders of the 18 member states of the single currency, the commission and the ECB.

As fears spread through Sunday that capital controls would need to be put in place, growing numbers of depositors lined up at ATMs, even in affluent city areas, to withdraw what cash they could.

The country’s plight deteriorated sharply on Friday night when Tsipras put his country’s future in the balance by suddenly calling a referendum and arguing robustly for a rejection of the price set by his creditors for saving Greece, at least for a few more months. This Sunday’s vote will ask Greeks whether they approve or disapprove of the last offer tabled by the creditors before the negotiations broke down.

But during a marathon parliamentary debate that ended in the early hours of Sunday morning, opposition leaders argued that it was, in fact, a vote on whether Greeks wished any longer to be part of the eurozone. It will be Greece’s first referendum since the country voted to abolish its monarchy in 1974.

The European commission said on Sunday for the first time in the crisis that it wanted to offer Greece debt relief, Tsipras’s central demand during the five months of stalemated talks. Reports from Berlin said that Angela Merkel and François Hollande shared that view.

But the potential concession appeared to come too late to prevent growing chaos in Greece – and sparked concerns across the Atlantic. Barack Obama was said to have called Merkel to urge her to take action. Jack Lew, the US Treasury secretary, urged creditors to offer debt relief to Greece.

Financial analysts will be watching the impact on the markets, which have not yet had the chance to react to the events of the last 48 hours. Mario Draghi, the president of the ECB, tightened the screws somewhat on the country.

The governing council of the ECB decided to freeze emergency liquidity assistance to the Greek banks, the lifeline that is keeping the national financial system functioning. The ELA was capped at last Friday’s level of €89bn. It meant that the banks could continue to function, but the draining of money as people flocked to the ATMs to retrieve their savings also meant they would run out of money that could not be replenished by the central bank.

“We continue to work closely with the Bank of Greece,” Draghi said.

Greece’s financial stability committee, which includes the finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, and the central bank governor, Yannis Stournaras, met on Sunday evening to discuss Greece’s rapidly shrinking options. The high-level political confrontations on Friday and Saturday produced the greatest uncertainty over Greece and in the eurozone in the five-year debt saga.

The fall-out from the collapse of negotiations and the calling of the referendum brought recrimination on all sides and predictions of gloom.

The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said he was “perplexed and depressed” by developments. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who heads the committee of eurozone finance ministers, said that with his referendum call, Tsipras was thrusting the country into a mess from which it would struggle to recover.

“We are millimetres away from the total collapse of the Greek financial system,” warned Herman Van Rompuy, until last year the president of the European Council and heavily involved in years of Greek rescue negotiations. “It’s actually suicide that’s taking place in Greece right now.”

The restrictions being imposed are anathema to Tsipras’s radical left-led government – all the more so since it desperately needs to keep public opinion on its side ahead of the referendum.

Varoufakis told the BBC in a Sunday interview: “Capital controls within a monetary union are a contradiction in terms.” But he was party to Sunday night’s decision.

In the early hours of Sunday, parliament voted 178 to 120 in favour of holding the referendum. Embarrassingly for the government, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn movement joined Tsipras’s Syriza party and its populist right-wing coalition partner, ANEL, in backing the proposal.

By Sunday evening, however, it had not received the necessary endorsement of Greece’s president, Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

According to two polls published on Sunday, Tsipras faces an uphill battle to secure the rejection he has indicated that he favours. One in the right-leaning tabloid Proto Thema found 57% of those interviewed favoured acceptance of the creditors’ latest offer. Another in the centre-left To Vima put support at 47%.

ECB says it will neither cut off nor increase emergency lending to Greek banks

Extraordinary Summit on Greece to Be Held Wednesday - EU Parliament Member

Greek Capital Controls Begin: Greek Banks, Stock Market Will Not Open On Monday

Zero Hedge,

28 June, 2015

Update 3: Bloomberg, citing Kathimerini, reports that Greek banks will remain closed until July 6.

• GREEK BANKS TO REMAIN CLOSED UNTIL JULY 6 : KATHIMERINI
• GREEK GOVERNMENT ISSUES CAPITAL CONTROLS, BANK HOLIDAY DECREE

Update 2: Greece's Skai reports that if/when banks reopen (supposedly on Tuesday), a 60€ withdrawal limit will be imposed.

Update: In a televised address to the nation, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras assured Greeks that their deposits are safe despite an upcoming bank holiday and despite the fact that Greek stocks will not open for trading on Monday. Tsipras also said Athens has re-applied for a bailout extension and urged Greeks to "remain calm" in the face of what is sure to be a turbulent week.

• GREEK PRIME MINISTER SAYS GREEK PEOPLE SHOULD REMAIN CALM
• GREEK PM: BANK OF GREECE PROPOSED BANK TRANSACTION RESTRICTIONS
• GREEK PRIME SAID GREECE RE-APPLIED FOR BAILOUT EXTENSION
• GREEK PRIME MINISTER SAYS DEPOSITS ARE COMPLETELY SAFE

Earlier:

Despite the reassurances from any and all elected (and unelected) officials, given the run on bank ATMs in Greece has turned into a stampede, it is not surprising that:

• GREEK BANKS TO REMAIN CLOSED FROM MONDAY FOR A WEEK: PIRAEUS BANK CEO
• PIRAEUS BANK CEO THOMOPOULOS SPEAKS TO REPORTERS IN ATHENS

The announcement was made when Piraeus Bank CEO Anthimos Thomopoulos told reporters after a meeting of the government’s financial-stability panel on Sunday. The launch of capital controls just as the Greek summer tourism season starts, is sure to be the final crushing blow to Greece, whose entire economy will now grind to a halt.

At the same time, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said an announcement would be made after a Cabinet meeting due to start imminently in Athens. Which is ironic considering just earlier today Varoufakis said he is opposed to the "very concept" of capital controls:

Capital controls within a monetary union are a contradiction in terms. The Greek government opposes the very concept.

— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) June 28, 2015

Banks will remain shut until at least after a July 5 referendum called by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on whether to accept austerity in exchange for a European bailout, Kathemerini newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources.

Reuters is also reporting that the Greek stock market will not open on Monday (leaving us wondering just what that will do to the Greek ETFs liquidity in US markets) as hedgers scramble to protect un-closable losses wherever they can.

More from Reuters, which reports that "Greece's banks, kept afloat by emergency funding from the European Central Bank, are on the front line as Athens moves towards defaulting on a 1.6 billion euros payment due to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday."

The ECB had made it difficult for the banks to open on Monday because it decided to freeze the level of funding support it gives the banking system, rather than increasing it to cover a rise in withdrawals from worried depositors.

Amid drama in Greece, where a clear majority of people want to remain inside the euro, the next few days present a major challenge to the integrity of the 16-year-old euro zone currency bloc. The consequences for markets and the wider financial system are unclear.

The head of Piraeus Bank, one of Greece's top four banks, speaking after a meeting of the country's financial stability council, said banks would be shut on Monday while a financial industry source told Reuters the Athens stock exchange would not open.

"It is a dark hour for Europe....nevertheless from where we're sitting we have a clear conscience," Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said earlier in an interview with the BBC.

Greece's left-wing Syriza government had for months been negotiating a deal to release funding in time for its IMF payment. Then suddenly, in the early hours of Saturday, Tspiras asked for extra time to enable Greeks to vote in a referendum on the terms of the deal.

Creditors turned down this request, leaving little option for Greece but to default, piling further pressure on the country's banking system.

The creditors want Greece to cut pensions and raise taxes in ways that Tsipras has long argued would deepen one of the worst economic crises of modern times in a country where a quarter of the workforce is already unemployed.

Pro-European Greek opposition parties have united in condemning the decision to call the referendum on the bailout terms, but people on the streets of Athens backed the decision.

"I want him (Tsipras) to knock his fist on the table and to say 'enough!'," said resident Evgenoula.

Many leading economists have voiced sympathy with the Greek government's argument that further cuts in spending risk choking off the growth which would give Greece some prospect of servicing debts worth nearly twice its annual national income.

The IMF has pressed European governments to ease Athens' debt burden, something most say they will only do when Greece first shows it is trimming its budget.

Long lines formed outside many ATMs on Sunday, including some of 40 to 50 people outside some in central Athens.

The Bank of Greece said it was making "huge efforts" to ensure the machines remained stocked.

The German foreign ministry said tourists heading to Greece should take plenty of cash to avoid possible problems with local banks and some tourists said they were joining the ATM queues.

"I am trying to go over to the bigger banks," said Cassandra Preston, a Canadian tourist. "I am here for another month and I would like to make sure I have some cash on me."

* * *

In other words, Greek speculators (and of course, those depositors who were dumb enough to still have money in local banks) just got CYNK'd - you can buy stocks all you want, but if the market is about to fall out of the bottom, you simply are not allowed to sell.

Which, incidentally, is coming to every centrally-planned, banana "market" near you...

Ignoring Tsipras Plea For Calm, Greeks Storm ATMs, Stores, Gas Stations

Zero Hedge,

28 June, 2015

Just a few hours ago Greek PM Tsipras addressed his nation imploring then to "remain calm" and reassuring them that their "deposits were safe." It appears the Greeks did not believe him. Many were wondering where thGreek bank lines were for the past several months. Turns out the local depositors were merely waiting until just after the last minute to withdraw their funds... horde gas... and stack food. Greece, it appears is Venezuela - the new socialist paradise.

Tsipras implored: "Keep Calm...."

They did not listen...

Call that an ATM line...

Now THIS is an ATM line...

This ia an ATM queue in the centre of Athens now #Greece #Greferendum pic.twitter.com/lx12DYnJIW

— Loukia Gyftopoulou (@loukia_g) June 28, 2015

??????? ????????????. ??????. pic.twitter.com/pPy1HT5LaP

— Kosmas Themelis (@kosmasthem) June 28, 2015

How Greece looks like after capital control announcement by SYRIZA-ANEL #europe #euro #Eurozone#EuropeanUnion pic.twitter.com/x6nK9951H1

— Poseidon (@Kons_u) June 28, 2015

#ATM#thessaloniki#greece#krisis pic.twitter.com/Ly4g8B0Paj

— ????? ? (@sissy_mitr) June 28, 2015

Lines outside ATM in #Thessaloniki this evening via @gatosg. #greece #athens #Greferendum #dimopsifismapic.twitter.com/phf1050KMG

— Omaira Gill (@OmairaGill) June 28, 2015

ATM queues growing by the hour in #Greece. #euro #GreeceCrisis pic.twitter.com/IYx9KAyr2n

— New Europe Investor (@neweuropeinvest) June 28, 2015

Even at the airports...

Resending this as there is at least one other ATM with cash at athens airport out of shot. I've joined the line.pic.twitter.com/EuoIcj9afb

— Elliott Gotkine (@ElliottGotkine) June 28, 2015

And gas stations are overwhelmed...

Scene at the petrol station near my hotel. Busy, certainly. but not manic. #Greece #europic.twitter.com/zEODyhbkHk

— John Hooper (@john_hooper) June 27, 2015

As grocery stores and general appliance stores come under seige...

???????? ??????? ???????, ????. ???? ??? ???? ?????????... pic.twitter.com/mWU7DHkl99

— ???????????????????? (@LPapastergiou) June 28, 2015

We have seen this before - in Russia recently as the Ruble collapsed and citizens spent any and every piece of currency they had on 'assets'.

The great news for Greece is that GDP for Q2 will be sent soaring.

Simply put - it's all about inflation expectations. And unlike The Fed or The BoJ, who keep trying to jawbone higher expectations into their citizens' minds, the Greek government may have achieved it implicitly through devaluation expectations and with it - a spending spree before things get more expensive and implicitly a surge in GDP. Of course, however, the spending surge can only be short-term and will stop as soon as there are no more euros to spend.

Greek negotiations on a knife-edge

Europe Gives Greece 24 Hours To Comply; Germany Draws Up Capital Control Plans

Zero Hedge,

11 June, 2015

EU officials turned up the heat on Athens Thursday after the IMF withdrew its team and sent its lead negotiators back to Washington. 

In what can only be described as a half-hearted effort, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras submitted two three-page proposals earlier this week that were dismissed by creditors as “not serious.” We suggested that perhaps that was intentional as Tsipras, having bought Greece some time by opting for the “Zambian” IMF payment bundle, is simply keeping up appearances while the real negotiating is going on behind the scenes with Syriza party hardliners who Tsipras desperately needs to support any proposal before it goes to parliament in order to avoid what could quickly deteriorate into a political and social crisis. 

One has to believe that Brussels understands this, but it could very well be that between Tsipras’ scathing op-ed (published two Sundays ago) and the PM’s fiery speech to parliament last Friday, creditors are becoming concerned that Tsipras might actually be starting to believe that he can effectively blackmail the EMU by threatening to prove, once and for all, that the currency bloc is in fact dissoluble no matter what manner of protestations one might hear in polite company. 

So, with the IMF having thrown in the towel, and with German lawmakers set to rally behind the incorrigible FinMin Wolfgang Schaeuble in what amounts to a mutiny on the SS Merkel, Europe appears to have finally had enough because by Thursday evening, reports indicated that EU officials have given Greece 24 hours to come back with a proposal that includes pension reform and VAT increases. 

Via Bloomberg:

Greece was warned by a group of European Union officials in Brussels it had less than 24 hours to come up with a serious counter-proposal, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

Greek delegate told by EU officials that a list must includes reform on pension and VAT.

Greece told by the officials that they are taking seriously all scenarios.

EU official didn’t specifically say what would happen to Greece if there was no plan presented tomorrow.

And meanwhile, Reuters (citing Bild) says Germany is now engaged in “concrete” discussions over how to handle a Greek bankruptcy :

The German government is holding "concrete consultations" on what to do in the case of a bankruptcy of the Greek state, German newspaper Bild said, citing several people familiar with the matter.

This includes discussions about introducing capital controls in Greece if the crisis-stricken country goes bankrupt, Bild said in an advance copy of an article due to be published on Friday.

It said a debt haircut for Greece was also being discussed, adding that government officials were in close contact with the European Central Bank on that.

The German government did not, however, have a concrete plan of how it would react if Greece goes bankrupt and much would have to be decided on an ad-hoc basis, Bild cited the sources as saying.

The takeaway here is that come hell, high water, or "Grimbo," the EU is going to extract its pension cuts and VAT hikes from Tsipras, and not because anyone seriously thinks it will make a difference in terms of putting the country on a 'sustainable' path, but because the EU simply cannot afford for Syriza sympathizers in more economically consequential countries like Spain to get any ideas about rolling back austerity (of 'fauxsterity' as it were) and using EMU membership as a bargaining hip. 

The only question now is whether Tsipras has been successful at convincing party hardliners to support further concessions, because if this turns into a protracted political battle, it's entirely possible that the country will descend into chaos, if only for a few weeks. 

Stay tuned, and as a reminder, here's a flowchart that outlines various political and economic ramifications as well as a guide to what's being negotiated:

IMF walks out of Greece bailout talks

Lender says its negotiating team are going home to Washington due to a lack of progress in narrowing key differences with Athens

Tsipros to meet Putin amidst cash crunch

Greek PM To Meet With Putin Amid Cash Crunch

Zero Hedge,

17 March, 2015

With Greece digging around in the couch cushions to try and scrape up €2 billion by Friday in order to make payments to the IMF, the ECB, and Goldman, and with celebrity FinMin Yanis Varoufakis doing his absolute best to sink the entire ship with a series of epic PR faux pas, one is left to wonder just where Athens will turn when Berlin and Brussels finally reach the end of their ropes with what increasingly looks like gross incompetence in the Aegean. We may have gotten the answer to that question today via Reuters:

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will visit Moscow on April 8 after being invited to talks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Greek government official said on Tuesday.

Greece's government has previously said Putin had invited Tsipras to visit Moscow on May 9 and it was not immediately clear if that trip had been changed. It would be Tsipras's first official visit to Moscow since being elected in January.

There you have it. As Syriza faces the unenviable proposition of either completely giving up on its campaign promises or plunging the Greek economy and banking system into a drachma death spiral, it appears as though Athens is playing the one card it has left, which is threatening to effectively surrender itself to the Kremlin. As Reuters notes, this wouldn’t be the first time Greece has (maybe) inadvertently created speculation around the possibility that Moscow could end up being the White (or Red) Knight: 

Tsipras's left-wing government ruffled feathers among European partners in its initial days in power with comments suggesting Greece might not support EU policy on Russia.

That prompted speculation that Greece might look to Moscow for financial aid to stave off bankruptcy, though Athens rejects the idea.

It’s also worth noting that Tsipras is calling for a high level huddle with Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, and Mario Draghi on the sidelines of this week’s EU summit. Here’s Reuters again: 

The Greek official said Tsipras had personally made his appeal for a meeting this week in a phone call to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, who organizes EU summitsand coordinates business between the EU's 28 national governments.

Tusk's spokesman Preben Aamann confirmed on Tuesday that Tusk was in contact with Tsipras and other EU leaders about organizing a meeting on the margins of the summit.

Merkel spoke with Tsipras on Monday amid simmering tensions between Berlin and Athens over his government's economic plans and invited him for talks in the German capital on March 23.

At that meeting Tsipras plans to reiterate Greece's commitment to implementing reforms and to raise Athens' cash problems, the Greek government spokesman said.

In other words, the Greek PM may be employing the always effective “negotiate or I might talk to Putin” ruse in order to secure some leverage at a time when Germany and France are already under pressure to deal more forcefully with the Russian presence in Ukraine. This is all made especially ironic by the fact that Tsipras is now “borrowing” from the public purse in order to pay back the IMF who will promptly channel the funds to bailout Kiev.

Oh, the geopolitical ironies.


Greek PM brings forward Russia Putin trip


Are Greek Capital Controls Now Inevitable?

Zero Hedge,

17 March, 2015

While the trading algos are blissfully honing their headline-scanning skills (it should take no longer than a few nanoseconds to find whether "patient" and "international" are in the FOMC statement) ahead of tomorrow's Fed announcement and avoiding any macro developments from around the globe, the biggest international news hit earlier today when Greece came one step closer to if not a Grexit, then a full blown bank run and capital controls when none other than the chair of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem became the first European Union official to suggest the possibility of capital controls to prevent Greece leaving the euro, which in turn drew a furious reaction from Athens, which accused him of "blackmail."


Quoted by Bloomberg, Dijsselbloem  said that "It’s been explored what should happen if a country gets into deep trouble -- that doesn’t immediately have to be an exit scenario,” he said. For Cyprus, “we had to take radical measures, banks were closed for a while and capital flows within and out of the country were tied to all kinds of conditions, but you can think of all kinds of scenarios.”


In Athens, the insolvent but proud government issued an angry reply: cited by Kathimerini, spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis said "It would be useful for everyone and for Mr Dijsselbloem to respect his institutional role in the eurozone. We cannot easily understand the reasons that pushed him to make statements that are not fitting to the role he has been entrusted with. Everything else is a fantasy scenario. We find it superfluous to remind him that Greece will not be blackmailed."


Considering Greece has been blackmailed from day one of the new Syriza government with the only motive that matters money, thus forcing the government to not only give up on all of its pre-election promises, but to soon implement even more "austerity" than the much hated Samaras regime, that statement in itself is superfluous.


But is Greece truly on the verge of capital controls, especially the kind that has the blessing of the very man who created the Cyprus "blueprint"? For the answer we go to ISI, which discussed just that in a flash note issued earlier today:


Greece Capital Controls?

Dangerous talk today about the possibility that capital controls may be needed in Greece from Dutch Finance Minister Dijsselbloem who heads the Eurogroup of finance ministers. We have repeatedly highlighted this risk. But for a senior eurozone official to do so is striking as it could easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Small wonder there was sharp push-back from the Greeks.

The risk of capital controls is indeed elevated for a simple reason: in the absence of substantive progress by Athens in implementing measures that will lead its creditors to release additional bail-out funds, the ECB cannot plausibly provide fully elastic lender of last resort support for Greek banks facing runs through ELA.

In the absence of a credibly elastic lender of last resort, it would be rational - in the sense of the classic Diamond / Dybvig model of a rational bank run - for Greek depositors to pull out their deposits rather than risk being the last to do so. In the event of such a run the imposition of capital controls may be viewed as the least bad available option to stabilize the financial sector.

In the real world deposits can be surprisingly sticky, particularly when as in the Greek case depositors with easy access to overseas banks and alternative financial products left a long time ago. And, the bank stabilization fund remains in place with substantial committed funds to support bank solvency.

The Eurogroup cannot impose capital controls on Greece. Our understanding is that only the Greek government can impose capital controls (restrictions on bank withdrawals, cross-border transfers) and this would require the consent of the European Commission, as guardians of the single market.

Tsipras knows how unpopular this move would be and has no desire to be driven into it. The ECB could force Greece by making capital controls a condition for continued ELA, but is trying hard to avoid becoming an active player in the Greek drama.

Still, a resumption of accelerated deposit drain as the conflict between Greece and its creditors continues seems quite plausible. And if this happens the list of options is very thin.

The fact that Dijsselbloem has highlighted the possibility of capital controls makes this outcome more likely. Depositors may now withdraw funds to avoid restrictions on their bank accounts and end up forcing the very imposition of capital controls their individual actions were intended to preempt.

What is going on? One possibility is that Dijsselbloem made a rookie mistake at a time when he is deeply frustrated with Athens. Another is that he fully intended to ramp up pressure on the Greek government to move forward with program implementation by raising the specter of Greek citizens being unable to access their bank accounts. Neither is particularly encouraging.

We continue to worry a) about the capacity of the Greek government to implement at home without a rupture in the ruling coalition and b) that the eurozone authorities are complacent about the degree to which they can retain control of the situation while allowing stress to mount in Greece as much as needed to ensure the domestic politics yields to program implementation.

Loose talk about how capital controls worked in Cyprus understates major differences in the political and economic context. Capital controls would be much more damaging and difficult to implement in Greece, which has an economy much larger and more complex than that of Cyprus with vastly greater payments and settlements needs.

Moreover if capital controls were imposed as a product of a stand-off between Greece and its creditors rather than in the context of agreement as to the way forward (as ultimately in Cyprus), Greek politics could lurch towards the need for a parallel / substitute currency rather than as hoped towards commitment to the euro at all costs.

Raising the prospect of capital controls does pile the pressure on Greece and may ultimately be part of the forcing mechanism that delivers implementation and funding. 

But this is playing with fire.