“We would consider the recent turn of events as a particularly negative market outcome”.
That’s the snap verdict from Deutsche Bank, who say the question of Greece’s membership of the euro is now “officially opened”.
Here’s the key points from a new research note issued by DB this morning:
First, the European political response.
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Euro leaders summit may be called at short notice. Similarly to the Papandreou referendum proposal in 2012, we expect that Europeans will make it clear that the government’s referendum will be equivalent to a question on euro membership. The Europeans will also need to decide on whether to grant a short-term legal extension to the loan agreement. Though we are still waiting for the European reaction, we consider a more likely outcome that the program is allowed to expire: extension requires multiple parliamentary approval processes, and given the tone of the Greek PM’s speech it is unlikely that the political appetite exists to grant such an extension. The IMF response will also be important: when and if Lagarde notifies the IMF board of a non-payment event, this will trigger cross-default on Greece’s EFSF loans and the EFSF board of directors (the finance ministers) will have the option, but not the obligation, to call these loans immediately due and payable.
Second, the ECB response.
The central bank has been holding daily reviews of Greek bank ELA provision this week, and officials have in multiple statements last week made it clear that ongoing liquidity provision is based on a “credible perspective” of an agreement being reached. Decisions are likely to be taken in conjunction with the European political response and program extension this weekend. The situation remains very fluid, but as things stand we consider the most likely outcome being an ECB decision not to raise ELA funding beyond existing levels as of this past Friday, or alternatively an aggressive adjustment in collateral haircuts resulting in an implicit cap at some point next week. The Greek deputy PM has said he will seek a meeting with ECB’s Draghi on Saturday.
The third factor to watch will be public opinion polls on the referendum question.
So far, these have shown that support for euro membership when an “unconditional” (“simple”) question is asked stands at around 70%. However, when this question is made conditional on more austerity, support drops to 55--65% depending on how the question is phrased. We expect the Greek PM’s position and the phrasing of the question itself to likely lead to additional swing towards a “no” vote. This is particularly so as Greek government officials have stated that the referendum will not be on euro membership, but rather the agreement. The extent to which European pressure and the situation of the banking system next week swings the vote the other way remains an open question. Overall, we expect the outcome to be very close and uncertain. The closer opinion polls are to a “no” vote, the greater probability is the market likely to price to a Greek Eurozone exit.