CRASH 2: Slog prediction comes true within hours as Greek banks request emergency liquidity

All at sea in Athens

FTSE, Eurofirst plunge on the news. S&P falls despite Buffet BoA investment

The Greeks have asked the European Central Bank for Emergency Liquidity Action (ELA) and this has been supplied by the Frankfurt-based bank. Sources in Eurozone credit management told The Slog within the last hour that at least one Greek bank is in serious trouble, and the sovereign as a whole may now be very close to outright default.

Earlier today, The Slog posted to the effect that the next thing we could expect to see is bank failures on an increasing scale in Europe. Having written that the process would start within at most weeks, this news suggests it is already under way. The Greek newspaper Imerisia said this afternoon that the ELA sum was ‘to help banks struggling to stay afloat’: not the use of the plural noun.

Meanwhile, in the US ageing White Knight Warren Buffet has invested a staggering $5 billion in Bank of America. But this dramatic attempt to restore confidence in the battered BoA was overshadowed by the news from Athens, and the S&P has already dipped by just under 1%.