ECB approves additional emergency liquidity for Greek banks-source

ATHENS (REUTERS) - The European Central Bank raised the ceiling on emergency liquidity Greek banks can draw from the country's central bank for a third time in six days, a banking source told Reuters on Monday, declining to say by how much.

The ECB's governing council held a teleconference on Monday to discuss extending the emergency liquidity assistance after Greek savers pulled about 4.2 billion euros (S$6.3 billion) from Greek lenders last week on fears Athens may fail to reach a deal with lenders.

"The governing council raised the ELA cap and will convene again via teleconference at any time necessary," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The ECB raised the ELA ceiling by 1.1 billion euros to 84.1 billion euros on June 17. It raised it by a further 1.8 billion euros on Friday, according to a government official.

Sources in Frankfurt and in Brussels said pre-orders for deposit withdrawals for Monday had already reached 1 billion euros - after savers pulled over 4 billion euros out of their banks last week.

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