The European Central Bank agreed yesterday to raise the emergency funding available to Greek banks to €68.3 billion, a slight increase on the previous limit, a person familiar with the ECB talks said.

The rise in the provision of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), over which the ECB has control, is critical for Greece’s banks, and gives Athens some leeway while it tries to negotiate a financing deal with European partners.

The ECB had already raised the ELA available to Greek banks by €5 billion to about €65 billion last Thursday. The new cap is roughly €3.3 billion higher.

The person familiar with the talks said the Greek central bank had requested an extension of roughly €10 billion euros. With yesterday’s further modest increase, the ECB is keeping Greece’s banks – and thereby the government in Athens — on a tight leash. “An extension and a small increase (in ELA) has been agreed,” said the person familiar with the talks.

The ECB Governing Council is due to meet again in two weeks.

The rules governing ELA stipulate that it is for the short term and should only be provided to solvent banks. But the solvency of Greece’s banks is tied closely to that of the state, which needs funding tied to its bailout programme.

Greece will submit a request to the euro zone today to extend a “loan agreement” for up to six months though Germany says no such deal is on offer and Athens must stick to the terms of its existing international bailout.