Greek banks are being hit by a wave of redemptions as the country’s most wealthy citizens and corporations look to move their money offshore or to international financial institutions perceived as safer homes for their assets.
Greek banks are being hit by a wave of redemptions as the country’s most wealthy citizens and corporations look to move their money offshore or to international financial institutions perceived as safer homes for their assets.
Wealthy Greeks and companies have been clamouring to move their cash deposits to banks such as HSBC or France’s Société Générale, which operate large branches in the country. They are among those to have received several billion euros of new money in recent weeks.
HSBC’s private banking in the country is understood to have been flooded with business, while the local operations of several other major international banks have already seen large inflows of money. A spokesman for HSBC declined to comment.
More than €3bn (£2.6bn) of deposits held by Greek households and companies left the country in February, while in January about €5bn of deposits were moved out, according to the latest figures available from the Bank of Greece.
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