ECB further lowers ELA ceiling for Greek banks

The European Central Bank (ECB) Tuesday lowered the emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) ceiling for Greek banks to 87.9 billion euros (98.9 billion U.S. dollars) from 88.9 billion euros, ECB said on Wednesday.

"The reduction of 1.0 billion euros in the ceiling reflects an improvement of the liquidity situation of Greek banks, amid a reduction of uncertainty and the stabilization of private sector deposits flows," ECB said in a statement.

The ECB further noted that it agreed to maintain this ELA level until Oct. 22, when the ECB governing council will reconvene.

The emergency aid was intended to replace deposit outflows from Greek banks amid uncertainty over the country's debt issue. Greek banks have relied on ELA for months to keep functioning. In the context of the decline of uncertainty and the stabilization of the flow of deposits of the private sector, the ECB recently was decreasing the ELA level on the requests by the Bank of Greece. Endit