With a, mostly political in nature, shot across the bow of both Greece and the Eurozone the European Central Bank announced yesterday that as of 11 February it will no longer accept Greek sovereign bonds as collateral for liquidity.
The announcement, that can be interpreted as pressure on both sides (Greece and the Eurozone) to quickly reach a new understanding, came just a few hours after the new Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Vvaroufakis, met ECB president, Mario Draghi in Frankfurt and a few hours before his meeting, today, with Germany's Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin.
It also preceded today's Euro-working group meeting and it takes effect on 11 February, the day of the Eurozone meeting that will precede the European summit of 12 February in Brussels.
As the ECB's ELA (Emergency Liquidity Assistance mechanism) is still in place and was in fact extended yesterday, the Greek banking system is not expected to sustain significant damage after this decision but it becomes more dependent on the decisions of the ECB which, together with the EU and the IMF, is one of the Troika members that oversee the implementation of Greece's bailout programme.
It is more of a political move that has already raised accusations against the ECB for using monetary policy for fiscal and political ends.
It must be noted, though, the country that usually levels this kind of accusations against the ECB did not do so this time, while the usually hostile German press praised this action.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/ecbs-warning-shot-greece-and-eurozone