Hundreds of Greek business owners are facing the possibility that the Cypriot-issued bank checks they have in their hands are “no good”. The Athens Clearing House issued an order to Greek banks to not clear checks issued by Cypriot banks.
The clearing house cannot accept those checks because the Cypriot banks systems are not operating and are therefore susceptible to fraud. Checks are cleared every three days, however Cypriot banks have not operated since Monday, meaning that any checks used for payments will appear to have bounced, since funds cannot be confirmed via the DIAS banking system.
Should a solution not be found over the next few days, the hundreds of Greek business owners might be left in the cold with rubber checks.
