Greek pensioners try to get a priority ticket for their allowance. The European Central Bank is in charge of providing emergency liquidity to Greek banks to ensure a cash flow | EPA ECB extends freeze on emergency Greece funds The central bank also did not increase the “haircut” on securities banks must put up to obtain emergency liquidity assistance.

The European Central Bank kept toeing its cautious line towards Greece Wednesday by keeping Athens' access to central bank emergency funds frozen.

In a move in line with the approach it adopted last Sunday after the Greek government announced its plans for a July 5 referendum, the ECB also kept untouched the “haircut” it applies to the securities that banks must post as collateral to obtain the central bank’s so-called emergency liquidity assistance.

According to some banking sources, the ECB had been mulling increasing the haircut.

The ECB had regularly increased the ceiling of the emergency liquidity extended to Greek lenders, to the current €89 billion, until last Sunday when it declined a request of the Greek central bank to raise it yet again.

“The Emergency Liquidity Assistance ceiling for Greek banks was maintained at the current level," an ECB spokesman told Reuters Wednesday night after a meeting of the central bank’s 25-member governing council.

According to some banking sources, the ECB had been mulling increasing the haircut.

The move will likely be criticized by the Greek government and its supporters, as well as by the hardliners who argue that the ECB is de facto, indirectly financing a bankrupt government, which it can’t legally do.

Increasing the haircut applied to Greek banks would have been financially logical after Athens defaulted on a €1.6 billion loan due to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. But it would have been politically hard to explain, as it would have been seen as central bank interference in the Greek referendum campaign.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and his finance minister Yanis Varoufakis strongly criticized the ECB’s Sunday decision, alleging it was the reason banks had to be closed and capital controls imposed the next day.

“Creditors have chosen the strategy of blackmail based on bank closures,” Varoufakis said Tuesday in a short written statement that seemed clearly intended to incite voters to turn down the policy proposals of Greece’s creditors.

Banks are due to reopen July 7, although some bankers doubt it could happen that soon, whatever the referendum’s results.

With banks closed and depositors prohibited from pulling out more than €60 a day from their accounts, the ECB’s decision doesn’t matter as much as it would have if capital controls hadn’t been imposed.

Greek banks have been facing liquidity problems since the beginning of the year as customers pulled some €35 billion from their accounts in six months.

Their situation is now unlikely to visibly deteriorate by the end of the week under the temporary protection provided by the regime of capital controls.

The ECB will be facing a much tougher decision come Monday, when the referendum results are in.

A victory of the No vote would be seen as a decisive step towards Greece’s euro exit, and would in theory make continued ECB support for Greek banks hard to justify. A Yes vote, on the other hand, would tip Greece into a long period of political uncertainty that could add to its current economic woes, raising questions about the banks’ long term solvency.

The ECB will be facing a much tougher decision come Monday, when the referendum results are in.

The ECB cannot legally provide liquidity assistance to insolvent banks.

The next high-stake meeting of the ECB’s governing council would then probably be on July 7, when Greek banks are scheduled to reopen.