The small bondholders who lost thousands of euros – and in many cases the bulk of their life savings – in the first ‘haircut’ on Greek debt held a protest today outside the Finance Ministry.
Together with the usual banners and flags, the small bondholders also strung up a dead pig outside the Ministry building. The protesters say the pig was intended to symbolize the lost savings by representing a dead piggy bank, today being ‘World Savings Day’. Representatives say that it will be later donated to charity.
In total about 15,000 families had invested their money in Greek bonds – in many cases they claim they were convinced to do so by the government who they say originally presented the bonds as safe place for ‘savings’ rather than ‘investments’. Many believed that the bonds were safer than bank accounts for their savings.
Yet these lost about 75% of their value in the March 2012 ‘PSI’ haircut in a deal struck by then Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos. While the banks that also saw significant losses in the debt restructuring have since been recapitalised, there have been no moves as yet to compensate the small bondholders.
This despite Antonis Samaras having pledged to do so in the run up to the 2012 elections.
A delegation from the small bondholders met with Ministry officials and demanded a meeting with the Finance Minister. They were told that they would receive a response by Wednesday.
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