Greek banks see steady deposits outflow Greek banks have seen a steady outflow of deposits this month, reflecting savers" concerns over the failure of political leaders to form a coalition government and the prospect of another inconclusive election, which will be on June 17. Athens-based bankers said withdrawals exceeded €1.2bn on Monday and Tuesday - 0.75 per cent of deposits - as President Karolos Papoulias failed in two final meetings with conservative, socialist and leftwing leaders to form a national unity government. Mr Papoulias's office said on Wednesday a non-political caretaker government would be led by Panagiotis Pikrammenos, president of the council of state, the country's highest legal body, to oversee the new election. The decision was taken at a meeting the president held with six of the seven parties that won seats in parliament. The only non-attendee was the far-right Golden Dawn. One leader's aide said Mr Pikrammenos was chosen because the political leaders could not agree on asking Lucas Papademos, the current technocrat prime minister, to stay on. A senior Greek banker said the experience of the past few days "gives rise to concern that withdrawals may accelerate." Another banker said: "We are seeing something very unusual, customers breaking their time deposits in order to withdraw funds." There were no signs of queues forming outside banks in Athens on Wednesday. Mr Papoulias warned politicians on Sunday of increased pressure on the banking system following the May 6 general election, in which small anti-bailout parties won the majority of votes, leaving the pro-euro New Democracy party and the PanHellenic Socialist Movement, without an overall majority. "The situation with the banks is extremely difficult ... there is no panic but there is great fear which could turn into panic and the resistance of the banks is very limited just now," Mr Papoulias told the political leaders on Sunday, according to a transcript of the meeting released by his office. The president cited a briefing by George Provopoulos, the central bank governor, who told him that withdrawals last week reached €700m, excluding funds used to buy German bonds and other foreign securities. One of the Greek bankers said that since the end of April, deposits had been reduced by some €5bn, including orders to buy foreign bonds and securities. Deposit levels have fluctuated during the two-year crisis. About €2bn was returned to the banks in March and April after Greece's international lenders agreed to provide €40bn of funding for their recapitalisation. Although most European markets stabilised somewhat on Wednesday after two days of deep losses, the Greek stock market shed another 1.2 per cent, taking its decline to 10 per cent this week. Banks have been the biggest decliners. Shares in the National Bank of Greece slumped 10 per cent, the 10th straight day of losses, to their lowest level in at least two decades. The price of Greece's benchmark international 10-year bond also dipped for a 10th day running, to just 14.4 cents on the euro, as fears mounted that Athens may be forced out of the eurozone. Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, insisted that Greek voters must decide for themselves if they are prepared to accept the terms of their bailout programme from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. It would not be possible for Greece both to remain in the euro and suspend payments to its partners, as proposed by radical leftwing critics of the programme, he said in a radio interview. "It's a form of irresponsibility," he said. One cannot have one's cake and eat it. That is what the entire international community, and all Europeans, have told the Greeks very clearly. Now it is up to Greece to take the decision itself. No one wanted Greece to leave the euro and Greece's eurozone partners had agreed to provide financial help, he told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. "It is not something that we are imposing on Greece," he said, "but it is a very carefully worked out rescue programme. We cannot renegotiate it... Now it is up to Greece to decide if it wants to follow this path.