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Athens - Two Greek banks have asked the Bank of Greece for emergency cash following an increasing outflow of deposits ahead of snap elections next week, the Greek daily Kathimerini reported on Friday.
The newspaper said many of the country's remaining banks will also ask to tap into the emergency liquidity assistance fund (ELA) in the next few days after failing to have adequate collateral.
Bank depositors have already withdrawn more than €3bn, and businesses are suffering as a result of falling consumption and lower liquidity levels.
Banks are also pressed for liquidity following the acquisition of treasury bills forced onto them by the state, Kathimerini reported.
Banks normally consider resorting to ELA when faced with a credit crunch and have inadequate collateral to borrow from the European Central Bank (ECB). But ELA also carries a higher interest rate of 1.55%, compared with just 0.05% for ECB funding.
Nine days before Greeks go to the polls to elect a new government, polls have put the extreme left Syriza party to be leading over New Democracy by at least 3%.
Its leader, Alexis Tsirpras, has called for a write-down of the country's debt, promised to roll back austerity measures and renegotiate the terms of the country's bailout agreement.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, whose ruling conservative New Democracy party has campaigned on continued austerity and budget discipline in return for gradual economic recovery, has warned that Greece could be forced out of the eurozone should Syriza win.
