Greece: Update on situation
Information from the market
Our Greek depository, Citibank Athens, has informed us that in accordance with a draft Decree circulated late on 28 June 2015, capital controls are to be imposed in the Greek market effective 29 June 2015. A bank holiday starting from Sunday 28 June 2015 to Monday 6 July 2015, inclusive, has also been announced.
In addition, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, during its 715th 29 June 2015 Board of Directors' meeting decided the following:
- The ATHEX regulated market and the Multilateral Trading Facility of "EN.A" (Alternative Market of the Athens Exchange) shall remain closed, throughout the period of bank holiday as prescribed in the Legislative Act of 28 June 2015 that is, from the 28 June until the 6 July, inclusive, taking also into account the relevant decision of the Athens Exchange Decision Committee;
- The Electronic Secondary Market "HDAT", for government bonds operated by the Bank of Greece shall remain closed, throughout the above period, taking also into account the relevant decision of the Bank of Greece;
- The suspension of redemption of mutual funds' units during the above period;
- The suspension of operation of ATHEXClear for the securities traded on the Greek market and the Multilateral Trading Facility "EN.A"; and
- The suspension of the settlement of securities traded on the Greek market by the Hellenic Central Securities Depository, approving the relevant CSD Board of Directors' decision.
TARGET2 Securities
Bank of Greece has declared a bank holiday in Greece. TARGET2 and T2S remain open and the Single Shared Platform of TARGET2 as well as the T2S platform remain technically fully operational. All transactions from participants in Greece to participants in other Member States (including transactions of ancillary systems aiming to debit a participant in Greece) that have been entered in the above systems from the previous days with value date 29 June 2015, are presented for settlement.
As a result, there will be no equities trading, clearing and settlement throughout the bank holiday period.
Impact on customers
Capital controls are to be imposed in the Greek market in accordance with a draft Decree circulated in the market. The related implications will be known only when the official decree will be published in the Greek market. Furthermore, customers are to be aware of a bank holiday announced effective 28 June until 6 July 2015, inclusive.
Internal instructions
There will be no change to the processing of internal instructions for Greek and Cypriot securities. There are also no changes to deadlines.
Bridge instructions
Clearstream Banking S.A. and Euroclear have jointly decided that the Bridge will temporarily be closed for Greek domestic securities, starting at 14:00 CEST on 29 June 2015.
Domestic instructions
Clearstream will process all Free of Payment instructions into and from the Greek and Cypriot markets, for Bank of Greece (BOGS)-eligible, Hellenic Central Securities Depository (HCSD)-eligible and Central Depository and Central Registry (CDCR)-eligible securities. There are also no changes to deadlines.
Clearstream will reject settlement for all Delivery against Payment and Receipt against Payment instructions with settlement date 29 June and beyond for these markets.
We will continue to monitor the situation and inform customers of any updates from the market.