Greek bank deposits stable despite fiscal crisis

* January deposit fall is moderate by historical standards

* Analysts, bankers say no clear sign of big withdrawals

* Any outflows may not be directly related to crisis

* Bank of Cyprus sees no big inflows from Greece

By George Georgiopoulos and Sakari Suoninen

ATHENS/FRANKFURT, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Data published by the European Central Bank on Thursday suggests deposits at Greek commercial banks are remaining broadly stable despite the country's fiscal crisis, analysts and bankers said.

Deposits slipped to 353.1 billion euros in January from 357.4 billion euros in December, but remained higher than 345.0 billion euros in November.

Historically, much larger monthly fluctuations have been common; deposits fell by nearly 10 billion euros between June and July last year.

Some financial market traders have been speculating about the possibility of large withdrawals from Greek banks because of the crisis, which has made it more difficult for some of the banks to borrow in some euro zone money markets. [ID:nLDE6171C7]

But analysts said the drop in January deposits was too small to imply such withdrawals were occurring, and several senior Greek bankers said they were not experiencing unusual outflows.

"The deposit data for January, the headline number did not seem to point in that direction at all, and the logic of those fears does not seem to stack up anyway," said Nick Kounis, analyst at financial firm Fortis.

"We cannot say there are capital outflows from Greece based on these statistics," said Deutsche Bank economist Gilles Moec.

A senior banker at a large Greek commercial institution, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said: "We have not seen any outflows from our bank -- no significant change that would have us concerned."

Major Greek banks include National Bank of Greece (NBG.N) (NBGr.AT), Piraeus Bank (BOPr.AT), EFG Eurobank Ergasias (EFGr.AT) and Alpha Bank (ACBr.AT).

OTHER FACTORS

If left unresolved, the fiscal crisis could conceivably prompt Greece to default on its debt or force it out of the euro currency zone in the long run. To bolster revenues, Greek authorities have promised a crackdown on tax evasion, which might also prompt some capital flight. [ID:nLDE61O20P]

But analysts said the 4.3 billion euro drop in January deposits may have been due to a range of other factors; Greeks may have been switching to government bonds, where yields have risen sharply in recent weeks, or drawing down savings to pay bills after losing their jobs.

Kounis said concerns about outflows from Greek banks had probably been excessive.

"There is not really strong evidence at this moment of a bank run. That kind of phenomenon would occur mainly if people were worried about a euro exit, then it would make sense to pull all your money out," he said.

"The other instance in which you would see that kind of behaviour is if there were concerns that the banking system was about to collapse...I've not been made aware of an imminent problem, or those kind of fears on the ground either."

Some Greek press reports have said one major destination for deposits flowing out of Greece is Cyprus, because of the island's close economic ties with Greece. But Bank of Cyprus CEO Andreas Eliadis said he had not seen such flows.

"I think there was more emphasis on this than the issue merits. From what we have been observing in the past few months, with us at least, there has not been a particular inflow to Cyprus," he said. (Additional reporting by Michele Kambas in Nicosia; Editing by Andrew Torchia)