Greek banks have scrambled to put in bids to borrow money for free from the European Central Bank, after the ECB's governing council voted to remove a ban on the use of Greek government collateral just hours before the deadline for the second of the ECB's targeted longer-term refinancing operations was due to expire. The lifting of the ban was announced at 7.30pm on Wednesday evening, giving the banks just 14 hours to get their bids in to borrow four-year money for nothing. Switching funding to the TLTRO facility will allow Greek banks to save millions in interest costs every year. At present, they are heavily reliant on emergency liquidity assistance provided by the Bank of Greece at penal rates ofinterest.
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