ECB agrees to more emergency loans for Greek banks

The Greek bank rescue mission is finally underway, but it is coming slowly. In a surprise announcement on Thursday, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi announced that the Greek banks would receive an additional €900-million ($1.27-billion) in emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) loans over one week.

Eurozone boosts current bailout fund

European finance ministers have raised their guarantees for the current rescue fund to allow it to lend out a total of euro440 billion ($626 billion), up from about euro250 billion currently.

The European Financial Stability Facility needs to guarantee more than its lending capacity to get a good credit rating and make the bonds it issues attractive to investors.