Exclusive: Bank of Greece warned of 'difficult' day if no debt deal - bankers

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras called a special meeting with senior bankers on Friday to discuss the mounting crisis in the banking sector after a flood of withdrawals that topped a billion euros a day toward the end of the week.

They said Stournaras did not talk about capital controls being imposed on Greek banks, which rely on European Central Bank support to keep operating, but he made it clear that the situation would be serious.

"If there is no deal, Tuesday will be a difficult day and decisions will have to be taken, is what we were told," one of the bankers, who were both present at the meeting, said. "If there is no deal the Europeans will have decided to move on is what we were told."

He said the meeting also addressed how the banks could keep a supply of cash open to customers.

"We discussed technical issues relating to ATM machines. Feeding them with cash is a big logistical problem," he said.

The ECB last week raised the cap on the so-called emergency liquidity assistance which the Bank of Greece can provide to the banks by around 1.8 billion euros but that may not be sufficient to keep the system running for more than a few days.

"Things are difficult," the other banker said. "If there is no deal on Monday, God knows what Tuesday will look like. Even the ECB is not sure on the roadmap thereafter?," he said.

A Bank of Greece spokesman confirmed that the meeting took place but refused to comment on what was discussed.

Withdrawals from Greek banks totaled some 4.2 billion euros last week as worries mounted that the months-long standoff between Athens and international creditors could end in Greece defaulting on its debt and being pushed out of the euro zone.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; writing by James Mackenzie)