Greek voters have now said that no to the economic demands of its international creditors, the fate of the country's struggling banks is in the hands of the European Central Bank.
Also, the referendum will likely be followed by new elections, meaning that euro area policymakers would have to wait for a new Greek government before starting to negotiate.
Greece's banks, closed since last Monday because they are perilously low on cash, have been kept alive in recent weeks by emergency loans from the European Central Bank. On Monday, the central bank's policymakers plan to convene to determine how much longer they are willing to prop up the banks.
When the Greece government decided to shut down the banks a week ago with the hopes reopening on this Tuesday. But according to Louka Katseli the head of Greece's banking association, the banks had only about 1 billion Euros on hand as on last weekend. In the panic that is likely to result in the same situation back again if the banks reopen this week, that money would probably quickly evaporate, unless Athens restricts even more stringent limits than the daily cap of 60 euros, or about $67, which has been in place.
All this suggests that Greece will miss the ECB payment as well on 20th July.
