Greek FM to meet German counterpart after ECB turns up heat

Greece’s new finance minister will meet his German counterpart Thursday, a day after the European Central Bank piled fresh pressure on Athens by cutting off Greek banks’ access to a key source of much-needed cash. Yanis Varoufakis will hold his first talks with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose country is seen as the strongest opponent of any easing in the terms of the massive debts Greece has built up, in Berlin. The ECB’s decision to no longer allow Greek banks to use government debt, which has a junk rating, as collateral for loans will likely feature heavily in their talks. The announcement rattled financial markets, sending the euro tumbling by more than one percent against the dollar, and prompting the Greek finance ministry to insist that the country’s banking system “remains adequately capitalised and fully protected”. The ECB statement came just hours after Varoufakis held his first talks with ECB chief Mario Draghi as part of his push to renegotiate his country’s $270 billion EU-IMF bailout.

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