ECB's Constancio says capital controls no reason to leave euro

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Introducing capital controls in a country does not mean that it has to leave the euro currency bloc, ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said on Monday, adding that such controls were possible only if Greece asked for them. "Capital controls can only be introduced if the Greek government requests," he said, adding that they should be temporary and exceptional. "As you saw in the case of Cyprus, capital controls did not imply getting out of the euro." Commenting on the provision of emergency funds to Greek banks, Constancio said: "If ... there would be no collateral and we cannot provide liquidity if there is no collateral, in that situation banks would have to scale down their activity." (Reporting by John O'Donnell; editing by Jonatan Gould)