ECB, Banks, EU to Meet in Rome on Greek Plan, Official Says

 July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Officials from the European CentralBank, the European Commission and private lenders will meet inRome today to discuss a second rescue plan for Greece, anItalian Treasury official said.     The talks are part of European efforts to get creditors toshare the burden of a second Greek bailout a year after a 110billion-euro ($158 billion) package failed to stop the debtcrisis from spreading.     The meeting will focus on involvement of private investorsin a new Greek package, said the official, who declined to benamed because of internal policy. The discussions are organizedby the Institute of International Finance and chaired byVittorio Grilli, the head of the European Union’s Economic andFinancial Committee. The EFC is a group of officials who helpprepare the regular meetings of European finance ministers.Grilli also is director general of the Italian treasury.     Greece’s credit rating was cut yesterday three levels toCCC from B+ by Fitch Ratings, which cited the lack of a credibleprogram for the debt-laden nation, uncertainties on the role ofprivate creditors in funding and the growth outlook. Fitch wasthe third rating agency to cut Greece to the bottom tier of itsrankings. It was cut to Caa1 by Moody’s Investors Service onJune 1 and CCC by Standard & Poor’s on June 13.                             Bailout                                     Euro-area finance ministers agreed this week that investorsshould play a role in the second bailout of Greece currentlybeing discussed, European Union Economic and Monetary AffairsCommissioner Olli Rehn told reporters in Brussels on July 12.The credit rating companies have all threatened to cut Greece todefault if the EU goes ahead with its original plan to askprivate investors to voluntarily roll over their maturing Greekbonds into longer-term debt.     The minister’s final statement singled out the ECB asopposing a “credit event or selective default.” Luxembourgpremier Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of the region’sFinance chiefs, said that doesn’t mean that European governments“would do everything in order to provoke a credit event.”     Today’s talks in Rome follow similar meetings organized bythe banking lobby Institute of International Finance on June 27and July 6, the Italian official also said. IIF’s managingdirector Charles Dallara said that euro-zone finance ministerstook an important step this week and suggested they wereconverging on “more fundamental approaches” for handlingGreece’s debt, the Wall Street Journal reported on July 12,citing an interview.