ECB wants to buy shield bonds – Hellas-bank stocks in positive territory – Reuters Germany

Athens Greek banks will be able to benefit from the bond-purchasing program of the ECB.

Hellas institutions may sell part of their bonds from the euro bailout fund EFSF under the program of the monetary authorities to the central bank, as spokesman for the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European stability mechanism (ESM) said on Friday. The news helped Greek bank stocks to strong gains. The banking index moved temporarily by more than 16 percent.

Hellas Institutes keep current EFSF bonds in volume of about 37 billion euros. So far had restrictions in the papers for the Institute. They were not allowed to sell directly to investors, for example. The euro rescue EFSF had issued the bonds prior years in connection of several steps to capital support for ailing Greek banks.

the euro system – the ECB and the national central banks of the euro zone – would be interested to use all eligible bonds for the bond-buying program, said an ESM speakers , Up to 50 percent of the outstanding scope can be purchased according to the ECB – this is the limit for securities issued by international organizations. The large purchase program of monetary authorities is now applied to 1.74 trillion euros and will run until at least the end of March 2017th