The Athens Stock Exchange is expected to reopen on Monday, 3rd of August, by which point a number of technical issues will have been resolved. There were expectations that the stock market would reopen sooner, however the computer systems could not adapt immediately to the technical demands of the imposed capital controls.
The creation of new bank accounts is necessary so that Greek investors have the ability to use “new money” to buy stock. The distinction between “new” and “old” money is a technical challenge – the procedure of which has been approved by the European Central Bank. In practice though, some glitches emerged that need to be addressed.
A number of meetings were held at the Bank of Greece on Tuesday, to debate the reopening of the market after 30 days of no trading. In the meeting of bank IT chiefs, the worst case scenario is that it can take up to ten days to adapt to the limitations of the capital controls. The Governor of the Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras, along with the president of the Capital Markets Commission Kostas Botopoulos and bankers discussed options so that the stock market can reopen as soon as possible. Government sources estimated that this could be as early as Monday.
The possibility of the stock marker reopening with restrictions on Greek investors – who will not be able to use existing deposit accounts to buy stock – has caused fierce reactions. The Association of Members of the Athens Exchanges (SMEXA) will take the initiative of informing investors in the next few days. SMEXA board member Nikos Chrysochoidis clarified that his association wants the stock exchange to reopen with equal terms for all investors, whether they be Greek or foreign.
Mr. Chrysochoidis underlined that reopening the stock exchange without equal conditions for Greek and foreign investors is not fair will cause problems, while stressing that in any case it would be preferable for the stock exchange to operate with unequal conditions than to not operate at all.
