Business
Greece Battles Mistrust To Target Bailout Deal
Greece has expressed hope of finally securing a 130-billion-euro EU/IMF bailout to ease its debt crisis even as acrimony grew between Athens and euro zone partners led by Germany.
Frustrations exploded as Greek President Karolos Papoulias, an 82-year-old veteran of the resistance to Nazi occupation of Greece during World War Two, lashed out at Germany’s finance minister for appearing to suggest Greece might go bankrupt.
Past backsliding on promises by Athens has created a growing mood of mistrust, with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble likening Greece to a “a bottomless pit” and asking on Wednesday whether Athens would stick to new promises.
“I cannot accept Mr Schaeuble insulting my country,” Papoulias riposted.
“Who is Mr Schaeuble to insult Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finnish?” he asked of critics in two countries which, like Germany, have heaped pressure on Athens.
Greek officials insisted after late-night talks with euro zone counterparts that they had met the final demands set by the European Union and IMF to seal a second rescue deal needed to avoid chaotic default when debt repayments fall due in March, Reuters reports.
But the euro slid to a three-week low on the dollar in early Thursday trade as markets focused on a Reuters report that finance officials in the currency union were looking at ways to delay all or part of the rescue deal while avoiding a default.
EU sources told Reuters euro zone officials were studying the option of postponing part or all of the rescue deal until after the elections while still avoiding a disorderly default.
“Confidence has indeed sunk to a low point,” Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees De Jager told Dutch paper Het Financieele Dagblad, suggesting one option was to delay delivering the bailout in full until after a Greek election expected in April.
“Schaeuble Junta,” ran a headline in the conservative Eleftheros Typos newspaper, harking back to Greece’s painful spell under military rule during the 1960s and 1970s.
Greece is pinning its hopes on a fresh meeting of euro zone finance ministers scheduled for Monday after it failed this week to clinch a deal to avert a bankruptcy which could shake financial markets around the globe.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said Athens had plugged a 325 million-euro gap in a promised 3.3 billion euros of extra budget savings this year, noting both parties in the government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos had signed up to austerity measures which already triggered rioting in Athens on Sunday.
Venizelos said he hoped euro zone officials could tie up all the issues before the ministerial Eurogroup meets on Monday, opening the way for a bond swap deal with Greece’s private creditors, known as PSI, which will reduce its debt mountain.
“These issues will be prepared at a Euro Working Group meeting on Sunday in Brussels so that, with good faith, the final decision for the approval of the (bailout) program is taken and the public announcement of the PSI is made on Monday,” he told reporters after a conference call with euro zone peers.
Greece had said it must initiate a debt swap deal with private bondholders by Friday to meet a March 20 deadline for the 14.5 billion euros in debt repayments. It was hoping to have the euro zone’s backing for its second bailout this week. If that backing now comes on Monday, it is possible the debt swap could start in the middle of next week.
After the three-hour conference call among the 17 euro zone ministers, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said progress had been made but made clear some matters remained open on making sure the bailout plan is carried out in full.
“Further considerations are necessary regarding the specific mechanisms to strengthen the surveillance of program implementation and to ensure that priority is given to debt servicing,” he said.
That was echoed by one government official in Germany, where public opinion is hostile to bailing out Greece.
“Questions remain that are very important to Germany and other member states about the sustainability of the program,” said the official, who declined to be named.
Juncker predicted things would fall into place by Monday although any number have deadlines have been set, only to be missed.
Greek conservative leader Antonis Samaras – tipped to become prime minister after a possible vote in April – gave a written pledge on Wednesday to stick to the austerity package but added that “policy modifications” might be required to boost growth.
Greece has yet to publicly specify how it will find the remaining 325 million euros worth of budget cuts and the cabinet – which would normally be required to approve such cuts – was not scheduled to meet on Thursday.
A new survey by the VPRC polling company showed Samaras’ New Democracy party getting 27.5 percent, down from its 30.5 percent score in January, but still well ahead of the newly-founded Democratic Left party in second with 16 percent.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti warned on Wednesday that the debt crisis was fuelling resentment within the bloc and rejected the idea of a “goodies and baddies” division between so-called virtuous northern states and profligate southern ones.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.