LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "The funds have been disbursed," an anonymous official at the Hellenic Financial Stability Facility told journalists.

The HFSF was set up to funnel funds from Greece's bailout program to recapitalize its tottering banks, allocating 6.9 billion euros to National Bank, 1.9 billion to Alpha, 4.2 billion to Eurobank and 5 billion to Piraeus.

All four will report first-quarter earnings this week.

The news came as two government officials told Reuters that near-bankrupt Greece could access 3 billion euros, left from its first bailout program, to cover basic state payments if other efforts fail.

"Our finance ministry efforts at this time are focused on boosting revenue," one official told Reuters. If these efforts failed, they would "examine all alternatives, including the 3 billion euros from the first bailout."

Greek state coffers are on track for a more than 10 percent fall in revenue for May, a senior finance ministry official said last week. Officials had warned the state could run out of cash to pay pensions and salaries by end-June.

Greece has suffered through a fifth year of recession and political turmoil, triggered by an inconclusive vote this month that has fanned fears the country could be forced to leave the euro zone.

The country's struggling banks have been among those hit hardest by the current economic stability.

Huge write-downs from a landmark restructuring to cut Greece's debt nearly erased the capital base of its biggest four banks, which rely on the ECB and the Bank of Greece to meet their liquidity needs.

The ECB stopped providing liquidity last week to some Greek banks because their capital base was depleted.

Greek banks have been borrowing from the ECB against collateral, and from the Greek central bank's more expensive emergency liquidity assistance facility.

Draining deposits, the country's lenders have borrowed 73.4 billion euros from the ECB and 54 billion from the Bank of Greece via the ELA as of end-January.

The amount translates to about 77 percent of the banking system's household and business deposits, which stood at about 165 billion euros at the end of March.

Funded by the euro zone and the IMF, the HFSF is due to inject up to 50 billion euros into the country's banks in return for shares which it hopes to sell some day.

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