Greece’s creditors are driving a hard bargain on releasing a new tranche of funds for Athens to meet its debt obligations, and this time they might not be bluffing. German and French banks, highly exposed to Greek debt at the beginning of the crisis, have managed to offset most of their exposure onto taxpayer-funded creditors such as the IMF and the European Central Bank (which is exposed to Greek debt to the tune of 110 billion euros through its “Target2” system). In theory this leaves financial markets less susceptible to contagion and outright collapse should Greece default and leave the euro zone.