>>>Yeah, I find the whole thing extraordinary but I'm no expert so what do I know. I can only imagine (as I think you said too) that these people at the top (the troika, IMF, etc.) are not stupid. They are all educated and experienced - they must know the reaction of the population, the risks of bank runs, civil unrest, etc. Yet they did it anyway - so there must be some reasons for it but what ..? The most "benign" thing I can think of is plain old fashioned political posturing. But I wouldn't be surprised if there is more to it than that.
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>>It's the IMF who was asking for this effective cutting of the branch they're sitting on. I take it they don't care of that branch anymore and are willing to cut it off. Let's face it, anyone's account with money on it is not quite what banks want. It's not their money, it's someone else's. And that third party may from time to time want to use that money, which means that the bank would have to have it. A liability. It would be much better if the money belonged to the bank.
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>>What's scary is that this may mean they've found a way to achieve that.
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>Sorry Dragan I didn't quite follow what you are saying about the IMF and the bank, etc.. Can you rephrase for me please?

I think they're trying to either destabilize the whole euro and Eurozone, or to redefine banking as such. To go from "my money in the bank" to "the bank's money that I use".

Deposits are a liability, and that's also inert money, the money the bank has to have (or had to, once upon a time). They'd rather have that money invested somewhere, where you could win or lose, but the bank would gain a bit on each transaction. Over the years I've seen various small steps discouraging the savings and deposits and nudging everybody to take their money to the stock market. Where you have far less control over what you really own, and you don't have the time to play on the market, so you'll let your bank, broker or any other middleperson do that for you. Which, I think, is the long term goal, to which this is an unexpectedly long step.