In Greek rescue, EU leaders take cue from Swiss banker

This man is the center of attention at the July crisis meeting here in Brussels as the leaders of the 17 eurozone countries try to hammer out a deal to save Greece from total financial collapse. His name is Josef Ackermann. He is chief executive of one of Europe’s biggest banks, Deutsche Bank. And, he is chairman of the International Institute of Finance, an international bank lobbying group set up to deal with international debt crisis. It’s not the first time that this Swiss-born banker visits the European Council. This footage is from November last year, when he was invited to address finance ministers. Unlike previous summits, officials did not make available the institutional video footage of the actual meeting of EU leaders. That footage, like this from a previous meeting, usually shows EU leaders meeting informally before they start their actual talks. In this case however, it’s clear that likes of Angela Merkel, Herman van Rompuy and Nicolas Sarkozy did not want to be seen taking direct advice from top international bankers. It’s clear however that without Europe’s banks, saving Greece from default would have been impossible. Support from the private sector has proved to be crucial in reaching a deal that generated 109 billion euro in new financing for Greece and that helped Greece from total financial collapse. European private banks that own Greek government debt have agreed to support this recue deal by giving Greece more time to pay back these debts and …