Decisions that will shape Greece's future are being made in Frankfurt

Analysis: Athens knows that without support from the ECB, capital controls and withdrawal limits would just be the start

When Alistair Darling was faced with the hair-raising news in autumn 2008 that Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax were on the brink of being forced to close their cash machines, there was never a serious doubt that, whatever Mervyn King's moral qualms, the Bank of England's job was to underpin the UK's financial system as "lender of last resort".

Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, and his colleagues in Athens have also faced the prospect of a total financial collapse this week, but key decisions about whether, and on what terms, to prop up its struggling banks are being taken hundreds of miles away in Frankfurt.