Anxious pensioners swarm Greek banks

Anxious Greek pensioners swarmed closed bank branches in the hope of getting their pensions, while queues formed at ATMs as they gradually began dispensing cash again following the imposition of strict controls on capital.

The country woke up to a changed financial landscape that many in the markets fear could be a prelude to a messy debt default and a damaging Greek exit from the euro.

The sense of unease was evident in the number of pensioners lining up at bank branches hoping they might open. Many elderly Greeks do not have bank cards and so make withdrawals in person at the till. As a result, they find themselves completely cut off from their money. One of the most onerous controls is a daily limit of €60 on cash withdrawals from ATMs.

“I came here at 4am because I have to get my pension,” said 74-year-old Anastasios Gevelidis, one of about 100 retirees waiting outside the main branch of National Bank of Greece in the country’s second largest city of Thessaloniki.

“I don’t have a card, I don’t know what’s going on. We don’t even have enough money to buy bread,” he said. “Nobody knows anything. A bank employee came out at 8am and told us ‘you’re not going to get any money’, but we’re hearing that 70 branches will open.”

Deputy minister of state Terence Quick said special arrangements would be made for pensions, telling private Antenna television that pensions would be dispensed in full as many pensioners do not have bank cards.

The daily withdrawal limit would not be enough to cover many basic necessities. “What can I do first with €60? I owe €150 just to the pharmacy,” Gevelidis said.

The capital controls are meant to staunch the flow of money out of Greek banks and spur the country’s creditors to offer concessions before Greece’s bailout agreement expires today.

Investors around the world are worried that should Greece leave the euro and say it can not pay its debts, the global economic recovery could be derailed and questions would grow over the long-term viability of the euro itself.