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Тhese banks have requested Emergency Liquidity Assistance, which is the ability of central banks in individual countries to separately conduct a monetary policy, which, by definition, should be conducted only by the European Central Bank, to provide liquidity support to local banks, which actually increases the money in circulation. There is such a mechanism, Greece has already taken advantage of it several times and now the same thing is happening.

I think the problems in the Greek banks have never concerned the Bulgarian banks. Firstly, because the deposit base in Bulgaria, compared with the assets of the banking groups in Greece, is very small and in fact, it could hardly solve a serious problem. Secondly, the Bulgarian banks continue to be profitable, which means that if they redirect funds to the parent banks, their profits will fall and so will the value of assets. Thereafter, the banking groups may experience other problems. Another argument in this respect is that in the period 2009-2013 some Greek banks sold their subsidiaries in different countries, including Poland and Hungary, and retained their subsidiary banks in Bulgaria. This means that it is in their interest to remain in this market and I think this will be the last thing that will happen, namely to sell the assets that they have here, not to drain them, which will reduce their market price. Then subsequently, the market price of the bank groups will respectively decrease too.

In the extreme case, it may happen that these Bulgarian units are sold and judging by our experience in recent years, when banks with foreign capital are sold in Bulgaria, they relatively quickly find a new owner, usually local persons, and in no way is this connected with the problems in the market or the instability of the system.

What alternative should Greece seek in the upcoming elections?

In general, I do not see what Greece can do because there is no alternative to what is now happening. In the same way as we did not have an alternative of "South Stream". We have taken some commitments to the European Commission and other commitments that are in conflict with the first under the trade relationship with Russia. Thus, we have found ourselves in a situation in which there is no way to please both sides, and we will face some penalties. Now the future Greek government is setting exactly the same trap. It tells voters "We will do everything possible to get rid of these austerities" and at the same time, it is dependent on what is happening in Europe and what the European lenders are willing to tolerate in terms of behaviour and conditions of the rescue programme. There is no way for it to get out of this situation scot free.