In chaotic scenes, thousands of elderly Greeks swarmed bank branches, which reopened to allow pensioners without debit cards limited access to their funds.
Greece's five-year financial crisis took its most dramatic turn yet, with the cabinet ordering the banks to close on Monday for one week ahead of a referendum in which Greeks will vote whether to accept their EU/IMF creditors' demands for budget reforms.
The move has again sparked lengthy queues at banks across Greece. One of the most onerous controls is a daily €60 cash withdrawal limit for each credit or debit card. But many of the elderly depositors, who are allowed more, do not have bank cards and usually make withdrawals in person at their bank branches at the end of each month.
The Greek government has reopened on Wednesday almost 1,000 bank branches across Greece for three days to allow pensioners without bank cards to withdraw cash. Nevertheless the measure has outraged many retirees who began queuing before dawn at banks to collect the €120 they will be allowed this week.
As the Financial Times reports: “many pensioners were growing frustrated over successive announcements cutting the amounts they would be allowed to withdraw. On Sunday the finance ministry said pensioners could take their full payments before capping that on Monday at €240 and then, a day later, halving it to €120.” To make matters worse, not all pension funds had transferred the cash to retirees’ bank accounts.
“Now at least I have these €120, for one week. It should be enough, I hope. But the situation is very worrying. It’s very upsetting.” Vassilis Argitis, 69, who worked for 35 years at American Express, told a reporter for the Guardian outside the National Bank branch in central Athens.
